As this year’s session heads into its fourth week, state lawmakers in both chambers took time for lengthy floor debates on key bills introduced by majority Democrats. On Wednesday, the Senate worked through some two-dozen amendments to SB 6492, a bill to impose an increase in the general service Business and Occupation (B&O) tax from 1.5 percent to 1.8 percent. The proposed increase would raise taxes on some 16,000 business owners in communities across the state.

The bill would also impose a separate additional tax of 1.22 percent on large computing businesses, such as Microsoft. The amendments, proposed mostly by Republicans, would have exempted an array of different business owners from the tax increases, but the tax-relief amendments were voted down. The bill then passed along party lines by a 28-21 vote on Thursday.

According to Democratic leaders, the tax increases would replace surcharges on businesses that were enacted last year to help pay for college financial aid entitlement programs. They said the surcharges were too difficult to administer and wouldn’t raise enough money.

Republicans countered that the bill is not a practical model for most businesses and would increase healthcare costs, because independent health care practitioners are not exempt from the proposed increases. They also said that not all higher education institutions would receive benefits under this bill.

Also on Wednesday, House members debated HB 1110, a low-carbon fuels standard bill that opponents say would raise gas prices, which are already among the highest in the nation, and would raise other costs, including food prices.

The bill passed the House last year but was not taken up by the Senate. House Democrats sent the bill straight to a floor vote this week without public testimony and did not allow amendments to be proposed. Still, the debate on the bill took all afternoon, and after a dinner break, the bill passed by a partisan-line 52-44 vote. Republicans voted against the bill. House Majority Leader Rep. Pat Sullivan (D-Covington), who voted for the bill last year, was one of four Democrats who voted against it this time.

The chair of the House Transportation Committee, Rep. Jake Fey (D-Tacoma), today introduced HB 2913, which would impose a 9.7-cents increase in the gas tax over ten years. It would start with a tax increase of 0.7 cents this year, followed by a 1.0-cent tax hike in each of the next nine years. According to Rep. Fey, the tax increase would be spent on rebuilding and widening some 1,000 road culverts across the state to help fish migration, at a cost of $3.7 billion.

Of note, too, this week is SB 6228, sponsored by Sen. Patty Kuderer (D-Bellevue) which would make convicted felons automatically eligible to vote upon release from prison. The bill was passed by the Senate State Government, Tribal Relations and Elections Committee last Friday and is currently on the calendar for action by the whole Senate.

Sen. Kuderer said her bill is about a “a major equality and social justice issue.” She said blacks and Native Americans are over-represented in convictions for crimes, and that as a result, they are “disproportionately stripped of their voting rights, diminishing their representation.”

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