2025 Legislative Update: Week 14

The beginning of the week focused on getting bills passed by the opposite house floor cutoff on Wednesday, April 16^th. All bills except those deemed necessary to implement the budget had to pass off the floor of the opposite chamber by 5pm that day or they are considered dead. Legislators worked long hours with some floor debates going late into the night. In the House, the “5 o’clock bill” was SB 5682, Concerning the Washington customized employment training program. And the “5 o’clock bill” in the Senate was HB 1185, Concerning membership on the correctional industries advisory committee. While 5 o’clock bills can sometimes be controversial and take debate and voting well past 5pm, both chambers concluded before 5pm on Wednesday.

For those that like to keep track of the number of bills moving through the legislative process, below are the number of bills introduced, and the bills passed by each of the cutoffs we have crossed. Note that these numbers/lists do not count bills deemed necessary to implement the budget (NTIB).

• Bills Introduced so far in the 2025 session: 1,944
• Bills Passed House of Origin Policy Cutoff: 1,154
• Bills Passed House of Origin Fiscal Cutoff: 730
• Bills Passed House of Origin Floor Cutoff: 523
• Bills Passed Opposite House Policy Cutoff: 485
• Bills Passed Opposite House Fiscal Cutoff: 450
• Bills Passed Opposite House Floor Cutoff: 358

After Wednesday, the focus shifted towards concurrence, dispute, or conference on bills amended by the opposite chamber. With the pressing timeline of Sine Die approaching, House Finance met on Saturday for executive session and both the House and Senate convened for floor action on Saturday. Both chambers took Sunday off.

This coming week the budget leads in each chamber will continue the work of going through the differences in the respective budget proposals as they work towards final operating, capital, and transportation budgets before the last day of regular session on Sunday, April 27^th. It remains unclear if they will end on time, or if a special session will be needed.

TVW’s Legislative Review does clips each day highlighting some of the hot topics of the day. You can find links to the Legislative Review videos here.

Upcoming Key Dates:

• April 27^th – Sine Die

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Budget & Revenue

House and Senate Democrats announced a new/updated revenue package on Tuesday. The revenue package includes the following bills (bolded indicates the assumed vehicle):

Capital Gains & Estate Tax (SB 5813 / HB 2082)

• Imposes an additional 2.9% tax on capital gains over $1 million
• Increases tax on estates of those who died after January 1, 2025
• Raises estate tax exclusion from $2.1 million to $3 million

Property Tax (SB 5812 / HB 2049)

• Allows property tax growth beyond 1%, up to the combined rate of population growth + inflation, capped at 3%

B&O Tax (SB 5815 / HB 2081)

• Increases business and occupation taxes for sectors including manufacturing, retail, wholesaling and childcare
• Raises surcharges on large businesses with taxable income over $250
• Raises surcharges on big banks and advance computer services

Sales & Tobacco Tax (SB 5814 / HB 2083)

• Expands the sales tax to include computer-related businesses, temporary staffing services, and advertising services
• Broadens the tobacco tax to cover products that contain nicotine
• Requires a one-time prepayment of retail sales tax collections for businesses with $3 million or more in taxable sales during 2026

The Senate Ways and Means Committee held a public hearing on these and other revenue bills on Wednesday, April 16, and voted most out of committee on Friday, April 18^th. They pulled a couple of bills from consideration, indicating the House version will be the vehicle for those bills. The House Finance Committee held public hearings on the revenue bills under their consideration on Friday, April 18^th and executive session on Saturday, April 19^th. Of note, all of these revenue bills are deemed “Necessary to Implement the Budget” (NTIB) and are not subject to the cutoff calendar. However, they still need to go through the full committee and floor process and be approved by both chambers.

While it’s not listed with the revenue package above, the Senate Ways & Means committee did amend and pass out of committee the intangible assets (aka wealth tax) bill, SB 5797. The bill was amended to reduce the tax rate from $10 per $1,000 of the true and fair value of the financial intangible assets to 34 cents per $1,000 and redirects tax revenues to the education legacy trust account instead of the general fund. The modified version essentially establishes a smaller version of the intangible assets tax with the assumed aim of getting it tested in court, which Governor Ferguson previously indicated he was open to.

On Thursday, April 17^th, Governor Ferguson issued his response to this new revenue package expressing his concerns that the updated approach continues to rely on too high of a level of new revenue. Ferguson pointed to the Trump administration and instability of federal funding as the reason for the revenue proposals being too high. Ferguson stated, “At a time of great economic uncertainty and assaults by the Trump Administration on core state services for working families, raising $12 billion in taxes is unsustainable, too risky and fails to adequately prepare Washington state for the crisis that looms ahead.”

As noted by the Seattle Times and the Washington Standard, the Governor’s statement did not include a specific revenue figure or provide suggestions of where additional cuts might be made. In response to Ferguson’s statement, Rep. Joe Fitzgibbon stated, “We have said that if the revenue number is too high, as [Ferguson] said in his statement, that we need more suggestions than [the Governor’s office] have provided so far”. Speaker Laurie Jinkins also responded stating she hoped to hear “things that he likes and things that he doesn’t like.”

With all this constantly evolving, legislative leaders are continuing to work on budget negotiations with the goal of adjourning on time on April 27^th, though it is still not clear whether a special session will be needed.