From LWVWA 4/20/25 Action Legislative Action newsletter:
Please note: you are being asked to take action again on some matters for which you’ve already sent in comments. Yes, once again. That is because of the changes in status of each bill (or the budget). Each time you take action, except when it is a message for all Legislators, the action is directed toward a different group of legislators at a new phase in the bill’s life.
The League’s Position on a Balanced Budget. The League of Women Voters of Washington supports action to obtain a balanced tax structure that is fair, adequate, flexible, and has a sound economic effect. The League also has positions on a variety of programs that encourage education, early childhood education, climate change response, equity in the criminal justice system, affordable housing, health care and much more. In that context, readers are urged to let Legislators know that the goal is to preserve as much service as possible by supporting progressive new revenue sources. Read this week’s blog from the non-profit Washington State Budget & Policy Center, “To create a pathway for income equality, lawmakers must not repeat the mistakes of the past”, HERE. Please let your Legislators know HERE that you support minimum reductions in services that people need and adoption of new progressive revenue that will increase funding capacity in the final budget that they adopt.
Some of the revenue bills that are moving forward include these:
- SB 5814/HB 2083 Modernizing the excise taxes on select services and nicotine products and requiring certain large businesses to make a one-time prepayment of state sales tax collection. This bill would expand the sales tax to include computer-related businesses, temporary staffing services, and advertising services, broaden the tobacco tax to cover products that contain nicotine and require a one-time prepayment of retail sales tax collections for businesses with $3 million or more in taxable sales during 2026.
- SB 5813/HB 2082 Capital Gains & Estate Tax . This would Impose an additional 2.9% tax on capital gains over $1 million, increase tax on estates of those who died after January 1, 2025, and raise the estate tax exclusion from $2.1 million to $3 million.
- SB 5812/HB 2049 Investing in the state’s paramount duty to fund K-12 education and build strong and safe communities. This bill would allow property tax growth beyond 1%, up to the combined rate of population growth + inflation, capped at 3% per year.
- SB 5815/HB 2081 Modifying business and occupation tax surcharges, rates, and the advanced computing surcharge cap, clarifying the business and occupation tax deduction for certain investments, and creating a temporary business and occupation tax surcharge on large companies. This bill would increase business and occupation taxes for sectors including manufacturing, retail, wholesaling and childcare, raise surcharges on large businesses with taxable income over $250 million, and raise surcharges on big banks and advance computer services.
PRIORITY ACTIONS
Support Local News—Urge Legislators to Call for a Vote on SB 5400.
Key legislators remain interested in moving SB 5400 forward this session as they recognize the local news crisis is only worsening, further threatening Washingtonians’ awareness of what is happening in our communities and our democratic system of government.
SB 5400 would generate about $20 million annually for qualifying local news outlets in to employ reporters. Funds, paid as grants based on the number of full-time reporters at a news outlet, would be generated by a nominal surcharge on for-profit social media platforms and search engines. Vitally important in these difficult budget times is that no General Fund dollars would be used. Ask your legislators HERE to communicate their support for SB 5400 to Senate leadership and ask them to move the bill forward for a vote.
For additional action items, which help pass bills the League supports on specific issues, click on the see all action alerts, and take action on the ones you are most interested in. Thank you for your support for the League’s issues!
There are many more action alerts in this weeks legislative newsletter! Get the LWVWA Legislative newsletter delivered direct to you by subscribing here.