For the bills that didn’t pass their house of origin by last week’s cutoff, advocates say they’re now angling for funding in the final state budget for items such as increasing rental assistance for the homeless and making large employers pay more for worker health care.

The good news, says House Speaker Frank Chopp, is that both houses passed Senate Bill 5093, expanding the state’s health coverage to 38,000 children — a measure Gov. Chris Gregoire has already signed into law. That means every single child in the state now has health care, Chopp told Seattle constituents at a 43rd District meeting held last weekend.

At the same meeting, he and fellow Democrats representing Seattle’s 43rd — Sen. Ed Murray and Rep. Jamie Pedersen — also said 2007 looks like the year for paid family leave in Washington state.

The Family and Medical Leave Insurance bill, sponsored by Sen. Karen Keiser (SB 5659), would provide up to five weeks of paid leave for workers who are sick or need to care for a sick family member or newborn child. The $250 per week stipend would come from a payroll tax of 2 cents per hour on workers, or $40 a year.

“For six years, we’ve been trying to get this in place,” says the Washington State Labor Council’s David Groves, who notes that the measure passed the Senate last year, only to die in the House.

With the speaker’s support, Groves says that’s unlikely to happen this year. But Chopp cautioned that it remains to be seen how Democrats will pull it off, given the governor’s reluctance to sign any more tax increases into law.

The labor council’s second try at getting large employers such as Wal-Mart to pay more for health care ran aground this year in the House, but isn’t totally dead, Groves says. Rep. Steve Conway’s Taxpayer Health Care Fairness Act, which would make companies of 1,000 or more employees pay the state for health services its workers use, could still be implemented as part of the budget process.

“We would have obviously preferred that the bill be alive and be pushing in the Senate,” Groves says of HB 2094, “but we’re pleased it’s still around.”

The Washington State Coalition for the Homeless also finds itself hoping for budgetary largesse. Though bills to increase funding for the state’s Transitional Housing and Rental fund (THOR) passed in both the House and Senate, coalition director Corine Knudsen says, the bills died in their respective fiscal committees.

The coalition had hoped to add $10 million to the program, which is currently funded at $5 million. Knudsen says the coalition is now left to lobby for a budget increase of $1 million, the amount recommended by the House Appropriations Committee.

A bill sponsored by Rep. Mark Miloscia that would increase housing funds for the 10-Year Plan to End Homelessness remains in play, Knudsen says, with a small modification. Instead of raising document recording fees $10, as Miloscia originally proposed, E2SHB 1359 would increase the fee by $8 to raise $13 million.

The House budget released Tuesday did not include increases that human services advocates had sought for the Basic Health Plan, general assistance grants, and welfare benefits — a big disappointment, says Tony Lee, advocacy director at Seattle’s Solid Ground (formerly the Fremont Public Association).

But Lee says the House did follow the governor’s lead in increasing the Housing Trust Fund, which supports construction of low-income housing, from $100 million to $140 million, making the extra $40 million a sure bet in the final budget’s passage.

The remaining bills must make it out of the house they were passed to last week by March 30.

[Keeping Score in Olympia: Still in play]

Source of Income: HB 1956, which would prevent landlords from discriminating against renters because they receive welfare, disability or other public benefits, passed the House.

Public Health: HB 1825 was aimed at providing an extra $50 million a year for public health services, but passed the House minus the dollar figure, which Speaker Frank Chopp says will have to be worked out with the Senate.

[Out of the game]

Condo Conversion: A bill that would have extended protections to renters facing redevelopment of their buildings failed to get a vote in either the House or Senate.

Health Security Trust: Rep. Sherry’s Appleton’s bid to create a universal health care system in Washington state died, but will return next year.

Payday Loan Interest Cap: “The bad news is that all the payday lending bills died,” says Marcie Bowers of the Statewide Poverty Action Network. “But the good news is the bad ones died as well.”