State Director Patrick Connor reports from Olympia on the legislative week ending March 28

Last Friday, March 21, House and Senate Democrats released their respective revenue packages to fund their 2025-27 operating budget plans. Small businesses were largely spared from these tax proposals.

Use these links to read the House and Senate tax plan overviews.

Both revenue packages included property tax increase proposals, though in slightly different forms. Both included a new tax on intangible financial goods (wealth tax). House Democrats are proposing a 1% B&O surcharge on firms with at least $250 million in annual gross receipts, plus an increase in the existing surcharge on financial institutions with annual net revenue of $1 billion or more from 1.2% to 1.9%. Senate Democrats offered up a Seattle JumpStart-style tax on businesses with high wage employees instead of a B&O increase. Under this proposal, employers with more than $7 million in annual payroll would pay a 5% tax on wages for employees earning more than $174,100 (the current Social Security cap).

NFIB opposes both property tax bills, HB 2049 and SB 5798.

In meetings with Senate revenue leadership, we pointed out that commercial and industrial properties tend to have higher assessed values than residential, so pay a disproportionately higher portion of property taxes. We also suggested that any local-option property tax increases be subject to voter approval.

The Senate Ways & Means Committee will hold a public hearing on the tax bills Monday, March 31, at 4 p.m. Use this link to access bill details and to sign up to testify or have your position added to the record.

The House Finance Committee will hold its public hearing at 8 a.m. Thursday, April 3. Bill information and links to testify are available here.

Transportation chairs also released funding proposals; both will include gas tax increases that NFIB opposes.

Week in Review

This week, NFIB testified on priority bills heard by the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee and the Senate Health & Long-Term Care Committee.

HB 1213, PFML job protection requirements
As we’ve previously reported, the bill would require job protection and continuation of health insurance benefits for all employees regardless of employer size. It would also allow leave to be taken in four-hour increments rather than eight. The bill continues to advance despite the $1 billion price tag over six years. If enacted, the existing 1.2% statutory payroll-tax cap will be hit in 2027, forcing the Legislature to increase or remove the cap, or bail out the program with a state General Fund transfer as happened in 2022. In apparent recognition of that, on Friday, March 28, the House Labor & Workplace Standards Committee passed an amended version of SB 5292 that would change the rate-setting process for the Paid Family & Medical Leave Program. That bill has been largely noncontroversial and under the radar. But House labor chair Rep. Liz Berry added an amendment that will increase the tax rate by two-tenths of one percent every two years, making the cap: 1.4% for 2027-28, 1.6% for 2029-30, 1.8% for 2031-32, and 2.0% for 2033 and beyond. This change will move NFIB and the rest of the business community to oppose both bills. HB 1213 advanced from the Senate labor committee this morning, after chair Sen. Rebecca Saldaña stripped the small-business grants to assist with maintaining health insurance coverage from the bill. It should head to the Senate Ways & Means Committee for further action. Meanwhile, the amended SB 5292 was sent to the House Rules Committee after passing House labor.

HB 1308, personnel records
NFIB again asked that the bill be amended to allow an administrative remedy for workers unable to obtain a copy of their personnel records from their employer within the 21-day period allowed under the bill. As currently drafted, the bill only allows workers to sue their employer if the deadline is missed. Sen. Curtis King offered an amendment providing an administrative remedy during Friday morning’s (March 28) executive session, but it was rejected by majority Democrats. NFIB will continue to press for this change as the bill advances. Without the amendment, NFIB opposes the bill.

HB 1430, paying APRNs and PAs the same rate as doctors
NFIB opposes this bill and testified that requiring health insurers to pay advance practice registered nurses and physician assistants the same rate as doctors will add pressure to increase health insurance rates. We argued that if the bill is too expensive to apply to state worker and teacher health plans, which are exempt from the bill, it ought not be applied to the (private) commercial market either. We also pointed out that the bill does not actually comply with its own intent section, which aims to expand access to care in rural areas. There is no requirement in the legislation to pay APRNs or PAs more only in rural or other underserved areas. Nevertheless, the bill was approved by the Senate health care committee on Thursday, March 27.

HB 1589, requiring health insurers to negotiate with certain providers
​Health insurers in this state are allowed to offer take-it-or-leave-it contracts to certain types of clinics and providers, particularly chiropractic and therapeutic professionals (physical, massage, speech, occupational, and other types of therapists, for example). In most cases, the payment rate has not changed in many years. For some providers, there has been no increase in decades. NFIB testified in support of the bill since it does not include a specific increase to any provider, but would allow an opportunity for small practices to negotiate their rates. Health plans typically limit the number of visits to these providers in a plan year, further minimizing the potential for a significant cost increase to the insurers or their policyholders. Executive action was scheduled but not taken during the March 27 committee meeting, so the bill is unlikely to advance this year.

Two other bills of interest received public hearings this week. NFIB signed-in supporting both.

HB 1483, Right to Repair
More than 900 people signed up or testified in support at March 26th’s Senate Energy, Environment & Technology Committee hearing. There was just one individual signed-in opposed. Two minor amendments are expected to be added to the bill during executive session on Tuesday, April 1. Both are additional exemptions: medical devices and avionics. Since neither really falls into the category of digital electronic devices intended for personal or household use, or would be brought to a repair shop or repaired by the consumer, there should be no objection to the amendments. NFIB supports the bill. 

SB 5408, corrections to wage and salary disclosures
As discussed last week, hundreds of greenmail lawsuits have been filed against Washington employers over errors in wage and benefit descriptions in job postings. Many (most?) are the result of third-party online job recruitment portals scooping the posts from employer websites, then failing to provide the full information when reposting elsewhere. This bill as drafted would give employers 14 days to correct defective job listings once a complaint is received. The Seattle law firm responsible for these abusive lawsuits rallied state and national women’s groups to oppose the bill. As a result, House labor chair, Rep. Liz Berry, forced through a striking amendment during executive session. With the bill now out of her committee, NFIB and others in the business community will work to restore the original language as the bill progresses.

Marathon budget hearings were also held this week by the House Appropriations and Senate Ways & Means committees. The Senate will be in session tomorrow, Saturday, March 29, working to approve its budget bill. The House will debate its budget plan on Monday, March 31.

The Week Ahead

Policy committees will continue holding executive sessions next week, working to approve bills in advance of Wednesday’s deadline. Fiscal committees will feature a mix of public hearings and executive sessions. The fiscal cut-off is Tuesday, April 8.

NFIB is not scheduled to testify next week. We will continue meeting with legislators and coalition partners about priority bills affecting our members.

Prior Legislative Reports  

— March 22: NFIB Testifies on Two Big WC, UI Bills

— March 15: How of Origin Deadline Passes, Sending Many Bills to an Early Grave

— March 8: Bill Giving Striking Workers UI Benefits Passes Senate

— February 28: Lawmakers Trying to Skirt Federal Law on Unemployment Benefits

— February 21: Minimum Wage Bills Dead For Now

— February 15: NFIB Members Turn Out in Force to Oppose Minimum Wage Bill

— February 8: Minimum Wage Bills Coming Up for First Hearings 

— January 31: Entrepreneurs called on to testify on upcoming legislation by signing-in

— January 25: NFIB Testifies Against Giving Striking Workers Unemployment Benefits

— January 18: Washington State Legislature Begins 2025 Session