WSNA in Olympia — 2025 Legislative Session

The Opposite House floor cutoff on Wednesday came and went quietly, leaving many policy bills dead on the calendar. Despite the looming deadline, neither the House nor the Senate designated a “5pm bill,” and both chambers adjourned their sessions promptly at or before 5pm. Meanwhile, members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee quickly transitioned to a 5:30pm scheduled hearing focused on new revenue proposals, underscoring the ongoing discussions about the state's fiscal strategy even as a major legislative deadline passed.

For the next 9 days, legislators will focus on negotiating the final budget and the corresponding revenue package and addressing bills that were amended in the opposite chamber.  Legislators are scheduled to adjourn on Sunday, April 27.

In response to Governor Ferguson’s April 1st announcement that he will not sign a budget that relies on a wealth tax, Democratic lawmakers began exploring several new tax proposals aimed at generating revenue for public services, education, and healthcare. Here are the key measures Democrats have proposed:

But on Thursday afternoon, just 17 hours before the $12 billion tax package was set to be voted on in Senate Ways & Means, Governor Ferguson voiced concerns in a press release, calling it "too risky." Ferguson did not however present any level of revenue policy he would sign, or specific programmatic cuts he would recommend.

Washington state is the second most regressive tax state, meaning that the lowest income individuals and families pay more taxes as a share of their income than the wealthy. We have a great opportunity to bring balance into our tax system by asking the extraordinarily wealthy and the world’s largest corporations to share the responsibility.

HB 1162 passed unanimously off the Senate floor on Wednesday, April 16 – on the cutoff date (whew!). Thank you for your advocacy this session! Your voice truly helped make the difference to legislators in making this bill a priority.

The Senate approved a very small technical amendment, and the House will have to vote on the amended version of the bill. Stay tuned in the next week or two for the concurrence vote where we may ask for one final round of emails via Action Alert in support to help get across the finish line.

SB 5041 was voted off the House floor on Saturday, April 12. The bill was amended to decrease the UI benefits for workers from 12 weeks to four weeks. Because the version of the bill that came out of the House and Senate are different, both chambers must agree on the final version of the bill in order to be enacted into law. Stay tuned for a potential Action Alert in the coming days, we will keep you posted!

Events/Rallies

• Wednesday, April 23 at 1pm: Rally for Public Good. North steps of the legislative building in Olympia. Working people are shouldering the burden while the wealthiest do not share responsibility. Our state legislature needs to raise progressive revenue to protect the public good. For questions, email Julianna.Dauble@Washingtonea.org.
• Thursday, April 24 at 10:30am: Protect Medicaid Public Action. John Dam Plaza Park, 815 George Washington Way, Richland, WA 99352. The event will highlight the people in the 4th congressional district who will be impacted by Medicaid cuts. This is a non-branded public action. For questions and to RSVP, please contact Emilio Meraz-Rodriguez: emilio@centralwafamilies.org or visit Central WA Families.
• Thursday, April 24 at 2pm: 2025 Worker Memorial Day Ceremony. Washington State Department of Labor & Industries, 7273 Linderson Way SW, Tumwater, WA 98501. Every year since 1990, L&I pauses to honor the men and women who have died due to job-related injuries and illness. L&I will honor 97 fallen workers. Click here for more info.
• Tuesday, April 29: Informational Picket at PeaceHealth St. Joseph in Bellingham. Morning session 6-9am, afternoon session 11-1:30pm, rally at noon. Find out the latest updates on the website.
• Wednesday, April 30 through Friday, May 2: 2025 Washington State Nurses Convention. Greater Tacoma Convention Center, 1500 Commerce Street, Tacoma, WA 98402. You can find more information on the convention website.
• May Day Events
  • Thursday, May 1 at noon: International Workers’ Day. Cal Anderson Park, Seattle, WA. Further details can be found on the event website, and attendees can RSVP here.
  • Thursday, May 1 at 5pm: May Day Scavenger Hunt Raffle & Celebration. Clark County Historical Museum, 1511 Main Street, Vancouver, WA 98660. Click here for more details, and attendees can RSVP here.
  • Saturday, May 3 at 12pm (noon): All Labor March (hosted by TLM CLC). Tivoli Fountain, Olympia, WA 98501. Click here to RSVP.
  • National Day of Action. You can search for events by city. Click here to find a list of May Day 2025 events.
• Tuesday, May 6 from 10-1pm: Winning True Health Security – How Could Single-Payer Health Care Benefit Unions & Union Members? Washington State Labor Council Building, 906 Columbia Street SW in Olympia. Hear from Rose Roach, National Coordinator of the Labor Campaign for Single Payer. Coffee and snacks will be provided. Registration is required.
• Find events, petitions, volunteer opportunities, fundraisers and more with AFT.

Upcoming Legislative Milestones

• All of April – State House and Senate budget negotiations
• April 14 to April 25 – Federal Senate recess
• TBD – State Final Budget Released
• April 27 – End of State Legislative session in Olympia (unless extended into a special session, TBD)
• August 5 – Primary Election
• September 30 – Deadline for Federal Budget
• November 4 – General Election

The legislature considers hundreds of bills outside our own legislative priorities. Below is a list of bills we’re watching as they move through the legislative process that may impact members. Click on any of the links to learn more about each bill and where it is in the legislative process.

NEW! HB 2082/SB 5813, increasing funding to the education legacy trust account by creating a more progressive rate structure for the capital gains tax and estate tax

HB 2049/ (NEW Senate companion) SB 5812, investing in the state’s paramount duty to fund K-12 education and build strong and safe communities

NEW! HB 2083/SB 5814, modernizing the excise taxes on select services and nicotine products and requiring large businesses to make a one-time prepayment of state sales tax collection

NEW! HB 2077/SB 5811, establishing a tax on certain business activities related to surpluses generated under the zero-emission vehicle program

NEW! HB 2079, increasing alcohol taxes

NEW! HB 2081/SB 5815, 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

NEW! HB 2080, prohibiting the Tesla tax or any other tax that applies to only one individual, business, or entity or a group of individuals affiliated with a singular business or entity

NEW! HB 2084, increasing funding for K-12, health care, and public safety by repealing or modifying tax preferences for certain industries and goods

DEAD HB 1069, allowing bargaining over contributions for certain supplemental retirement benefits

HB 2073/SB 5808, funding health insurance premium assistance

HB 2045, investing in Washington families by restructuring the business and occupation tax on high grossing businesses and financial institutions

HB 2046, creating fairness in Washington’s tax by imposing a tax on select financial intangible assets

HB 2049, investing in the state’s paramount duty to fund K-12 education and build strong and safe communities

SB 5794, adopting recommendations from the tax preference performance review process, eliminating obsolete tax preferences, clarifying legislative intent, and addressing changes in constitutional law

 SB 5795, reducing the state sales and use tax rate

SB 5796, enacting an excise tax on large employers on the amount of payroll expenses above the social security wage threshold to fund programs and services to benefit Washingtonians

SB 5797, enacting a tax on stocks, bonds, and other financial intangible assets for the benefit of public schools

SB 5798, concerning property tax reform

HB 1879, concerning meal and rest breaks for hospital workers

SB 5101, expanding access to leave and safety accommodations to include workers who are victims of hate crimes or bias incidents

SB 5503, concerning public employee collective bargaining processes

SB 5493, concerning hospital price transparency

HB 1531, preserving the ability of public officials to address communicable diseases

HB 1308, concerning access to personnel recordsHB 1022, creating a home for heroes program.

HB 1213, expanding protections for workers in the state paid family and medical leave

HB 1686, creating a health care entity registry

How does a bill become a law?

Washington State Labor Council’s 2025 Legislative Priorities

The U.S. Congress has approved a multi-trillion broad budget framework giving them a starting point to increase spending on defense and extending certain tax cuts. Because the House and Senate passed nearly identical budget blueprints, they have unlocked a special budget tool known as reconciliation – a complicated process that bypasses the Senate filibuster so they only need 51 votes to pass. While the details will be finalized over the coming months, in order to pay for this budget proposal, major cuts to Medicaid and other healthcare programs are still on the table.

Medicaid matters to people. You can click here to see how important Medicaid is to Washington residents, communities, and local hospitals.

More than 1.8 million Washingtonians are enrolled in Apple Health, our state’s Medicaid program. Tell your member of Congress to support Medicaid by sharing how important it is to your community and healthcare access! You will be directed to AFT’s action alert, where you first fill out your information, and then the letter you send to your Member of Congress which can be edited before submittal if you choose to do so.

Learn more about Medicaid here.