Author Archives: abond

OLYMPIA — Senate Housing Committee Chair Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia) hailed the 2025 legislative session as one that made significant progress for housing affordability. “We came into this session with a three-pronged housing strategy — expand our housing supply, support homeownership ...

OLYMPIA — A revised version of rent stabilization legislation, House Bill 1217, was proposed by a conference committee of House and Senate members Thursday. The bill could potentially be voted on as soon as Friday evening.   The proposed compromise would ...

House and Senate Democratic budget leaders released an updated legislative package to raise new progressive revenue and fund K-12 education and essential state services this week. It would raise nearly $12 billion over four years. “We’ve updated our proposal to ...

OLYMPIA — Ahead of next week’s full operating budget proposal, Senate Democratic budget leaders released their new revenue proposal for the 2025-27 operating budget. “We’ve spent months discussing our budget, learned about how damaging an all-cuts budget might be, and ...

The Housing Accountability Act passed the Senate on a 46-2 vote on Tuesday. Senate Bill 5148, sponsored by Sen. Jessica Bateman (D-Olympia), helps ensure cities and local governments comply with state laws that expand housing affordability options and require the ...

Legislation strengthening criminal penalties against corporate actors responsible for pollution spills and other environmental crimes passed the Washington State Senate Tuesday on a 29-20 vote. Under current law, violations of federal environmental law face harsher penalties than state violations. Senate ...

Legislation to make clergy members mandatory reporters of child abuse and neglect passed the Washington State Senate Friday on a 28-20 vote. Currently, Washington is one of just five states in the country that does not list clergy as mandatory reporters of ...

OLYMPIA – The Parking Reform and Modernization Act passed the Washington state Senate today on a bipartisan 40-8 vote. Senate Bill 5184 would reform rigid parking mandates set by local governments across Washington, replacing them with flexible rules that allow ...

Legislation sponsored by Sen. Sharon Shewmake (D-Bellingham) to expand construction of accessory dwelling units, or ADUs, passed the Senate on a 42-6 vote today. ADUs, often referred to as backyard cottages or mother-in-law units, are residential homes that occupy the ...

The Washington State Wealth Tax would tax extreme wealth derived from the ownership of stocks, bonds, and other financial assets with the proceeds dedicated to education, housing, disability services, and tax credits for working families At a news conference today, ...