SOUTH SOUND CHAMBER OF COMMERCE LEGISLATIVE COALITION – February 27, 2026
Okay – we are past the Opposite House Policy Cut Off and on our way to Monday’s Opposite House Fiscal Cut off. Once we are past the 2nd of March, we are on our way to the end. Only 13 days to go.
As you can see many bills are dead. In fact, except for those necessary to implement the budget, there are only 356 bills left – and many of those will die after Monday. Amazing considering we started with about 2000 or more bills in the system.
We now turn all of our thoughts and prayers to the budget. So far the only group that seems happy is higher ed – concerns abound about the amount of spending. The nearly $700-800 billion taken out of the rainy day fund, the cuts to sections of K-12 education, the plan to raid various funds – including some state pension funds, are all leading to significant debates once they actually start negotiating the budgets in conference. The income tax bill is assumed in the final year of the four-year budget. Most of the rest of the revenues and fees come from nicotine taxes, increased fees and fund transfers.
On the transportation budget – the Gateway projects look good this year. No issues that have been identified. The debates in transportation are around the spending for ferries, whether or not to bond any of the revenue sources (and then how much) to free up other money to pay for significant maintenance and preservation investments. I expect resolution of this to be less noisy and controversial and more of a House versus Senate debate than an R versus D.
The income tax bill – 6346 – is still moving. It came out of the House Finance Committee on a mostly party line vote. Rep. Amy Walen (D – 45) was the lone Democrat voting no on the bill. It was amended to add in several things including to remove the early sunset of the B&O tax surcharge and a task force to work on the details about how it would work – including how to overlay with B&O taxes paid.
Expect the next two weeks to be fast and crazy.