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| |  | The question of how Gov. Ferguson will handle balancing the state budget looms large heading into the 60-day legislative session. (Alexi Rosenfeld / Getty Images) |
| WA’s 2026 Legislative Session Has Begun | Washington state lawmakers began a 60-day session yesterday. There’s a lot to discuss, ranging from fiscal reckoning to flood recovery, plus how to handle AI, ICE, and vaccine guidance. On today’s podcast 🎧, we discuss some of the bills heard this week. | - Using Climate Dollars for Tax Credits: As part of balancing the budget, Gov. Ferguson has proposed using $569 million of Climate Commitment Act revenue to cover the expense of the Working Families Tax Credit for low- and middle-income households. He’s also proposed siphoning $1 billion from the state’s rainy day reserve fund. [Washington State Standard]
- Taxing Millionaires and Big Business: Democrats introduced a range of bills to bring in more revenue for the state. Toward the end of 2025, Ferguson pivoted to signal his support for a proposed income tax on residents earning more than $1 million a year. He said he’s prepared to sign the policy into law. However, proceeds from his tax proposal wouldn't be collected until 2029. Rep. Shaun Scott also introduced a tax proposal that would go into effect mid-year, which is modeled after Seattle’s JumpStart payroll expense tax. The tax could raise up to $3 billion a year. [The Urbanist]
- Who Enforces Law Enforcement? SB 5855 would ban law enforcement from wearing facial coverings when interacting with the public, with two key exceptions: during undercover operations and when special weapons and tactics (SWAT) team officers need protective gear to prevent physical harm. Another bill prohibits wearing law enforcement insignia to impersonate officers and would help limit the sale and possession of items with law enforcement insignia on them.
- Vaccines, AI Chat Bots, and a State Bank?! Many more bills will be discussed this week, including one allowing the state Department of Health to propose recommendations for vaccines based on medical and scientific expertise without relying solely on recommendations from federal committees. Another would regulate chatbots with a particular eye toward developers’ protocols for self-harm and suicidal ideation, regulating sexual content for minors, and requiring chatbots to disclose that they are, in fact, AI. And still another proposes creating a WA state public bank (which we discuss more on the podcast).
- Also, Ranked-Choice Voting: HB 2210 would allow city, town, school district, fire district, or port district to use ranked-choice voting. Seattle passed a measure here in 2022 for ranked choice in City of Seattle races (e.g., mayor, city attorney, and city council), but it won’t roll out until the August 2027 primary. [Cascade PBS]
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| What Seattle’s Talking About |
| | Seattle Family ‘Self-Deports’ to Guatemala ✈️ | A Seattle fourth-grader and his family spent a whole day at the airport navigating the process of ‘self-deportation.’ The mother of the family, Darlin, said she’s worried about taking them to a country she fled out of fear. But she made the decision after determining that an ICE arrest would traumatize her children. It took ICE 12 hours to get their travel papers, causing the family to miss their first flight. KUOW’s Casey Martin followed the family through the full day. [KUOW] | | Traffic Is Already Slowing Southbound Commuters on I-5 🚦 | Yesterday, repaving of the I-5 ship canal bridge began in Seattle, and traffic is already…well, bad. The traffic was heaviest going southbound on I-5 from Lynnwood to Seattle, as the express lanes are only running northbound. WSDOT says that it will take an hour to drive from Lynnwood to Seattle, which is 45 minutes longer than average. Yikes. This news also comes as The Urbanist is reporting that the project widening I-5 between Oregon and Washington may be dead due to a new, extremely high price tag. [Seattle Times] | | | Representative Randall Joins Call To Impeach Kristi Noem 🧑🏽⚖️ | Representative Emily Randall has announced she will co-sponsor articles of impeachment against DHS Secretary Kristi Noem. This comes after an ICE agent killed Renee Nicole Good in Minneapolis, and another ICE agent, who was off-duty at the time, killed Keith Porter in Los Angeles. Reps from Illinois, California, Hawaii, Arizona, and Kentucky have joined the effort, which is unlikely to advance due to Republican control of the House. [The Burner] | | Landslide Severs WA Tribe’s Access To Cemetery 🥁 | The Sauk-Suiattle tribe has lost access to their tribal cemetery due to a landslide creating a deep ravine across Suiattle River Road. The tribe’s ancestral homelands were taken from them in the late 1800s to make way for timber harvesting, but the cemetery has remained an essential link across generations. They are working with the Forest Service to find a solution. The last time the Suiattle River Road washed out, it took a decade to repair. [Seattle Times] | | Kaiser Is Fined For ‘Mental Health Parity’ Laws 💲 | Kaiser Permanente has been fined $300K for not following Washington’s ‘mental health parity’ laws, which essentially say that mental health services should be covered at the same rate as physical conditions. Premera Blue Cross WA and Regence were similarly fined this year, as was United Healthcare in 2023. [Seattle Times] |
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If there are bills you’re keeping an eye on, or want us to dig into, reply to this email and let our team know! | | — Sam |
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