Senate bill raises property damage costs in relation to sentencing

OLYMPIA — In 1975, the Washington Criminal Code was adopted to establish the degree of sentencing for property crimes based on the value of the items stolen. Those numbers have never been adjusted. A crime based on $1500 in property damage in 1975 would be equal to a property crime based on over $5600 property damage today.

The Senate voted Monday in favor of legislation sponsored by Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, that updates the property damage limits in relation to determining the degree of sentencing of the crime.

Senate Bill 5343 also stipulates that if an offender is being sentenced for a single or aggregated series of offenses constituting theft, unlawful issuance of a check or draft, or forgery with a total monetary value over $200,000, then the offender may be charged the statutory maximum for that crime.

“This bill does not apply the CPI [Consumer Price Index] when increasing the 1975 figures, but is quite a bit below,” said Kline. “And, this bill merely involves an inflationary change; it does not affect the substance of the crimes.”

Since these types of crimes look less serious compared to the offenses that are typically in superior court, the bill also moves these types of property damage cases to district court. This will not only result in swifter justice, but will also be a cost savings to the courts.

SB 5843 passed the Senate on Monday and now moves to the House for consideration.

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