Dear friends and neighbors,

With the 2026 legislative session in the rearview mirror, I’m pleased to report back to you on the progress we made on some of the issues about which I’ve heard the most from you. One issue we’ve had a drumbeat on all session was affordability and the rising cost of living in Washington state — a crisis made even worse by President Trump’s tariffs and his illegal war with Iran driving up gas prices. In my role as vice chair for Finance, I made sure our work on taxes included affordability as a priority.

The Millionaires Tax and affordability

The Millionaires Tax — a 9.9% tax on household income more than $1 million a year — will make our tax code dramatically more progressive. By asking about 20,000 of the wealthiest households in our state to contribute more, we can increase funding for public schools, health care, higher education, and other essential services we all rely on. Not only will these schools and services help countless families across the state, but the bill reduces taxes for families and small businesses:

  • Eliminating sales tax on personal care products, baby and adult diapers, and most over-the-counter medicine. Since there is already no sales tax on groceries, that means just about everything in a family’s shopping cart will be tax-free.
  • Exempting about 70% of all Washington businesses from the Business & Occupation tax. This will be the biggest tax cut for small business in our state’s history!
  • Setting aside 5% of annual tax proceeds for the Fair Start for Kids Account, which increases access to early learning programs and provides resources to support children, families and child care and early learning providers.
  • Providing free school breakfast and lunch to all public school students.
  • Expanding eligibility for the Working Families Tax Credit to 460,000 additional households, including young adults and seniors, helping lower-income families.

Less than 1% of the state will pay this tax, but everyone will benefit. This bill will go into effect in 2028, with the first tax payments due in 2029, and it’ll be the biggest, most progressive, and most transformative tax change in our state’s history. I’m tremendously excited we were able to pass this into law this year and look forward to seeing the benefits all around our community.

Watching the House of Representatives vote on the Millionaires Tax with my legislative assistant, Kelsey Hamlin

More affordability legislation

While the Millionaires Tax will be a transformative change, there’s more we did this year on affordability.

SB 6162 expands the senior citizen property tax exemption program to help an additional 50,000 Washingtonians stay in their homes, creates a standard $7,500 deduction for those who qualify, and streamlines the administration of the program to make it easier for our counties. I helped develop this bill because I know how property taxes can have a big impact on our seniors, people with disabilities, and disabled veterans who are on fixed incomes. This is a great first step toward fairer property taxes, and I will continue to advocate for a constitutional amendment that can provide more transformative progressive property tax reform, so that a family home isn’t taxed the same as a downtown skyscraper or an investment property.

With the governor and county assessors for the signing of SB 6162

HB 1903 establishes a statewide program to provide ongoing energy bill assistance to low-income households. The program will work in partnership with gas and electric utilities to ensure assistance is reflected directly on customers’ monthly bills.

SB 6026 helps respond to our shortage of affordable housing by legalizing residential development anywhere that’s zoned for commercial or mixed-use while preserving our Main Streets and neighborhood business districts that are home to so many of our communities’ small businesses! That means we can build more housing closer to commercial hubs, downtowns, and neighborhood centers, so more people will be able to walk or bike from their home to their job or where they do their shopping. We also passed housing bills to cut red tape for permitting to lower building costs, incentivize religious organizations to build affordable housing on their land, and lower costs for elevators in apartment buildings and condominiums.

HB 2479 strengthens Washington’s response to wage theft and enforcement by allowing workers to recover unpaid wages more quickly and fairly while their claims are being processed.

We’re also closely tracking the implementation of the historic rent stabilization bill we passed last year. I’ve already heard stories from many families who were deeply concerned about facing a rent hike of 15-50% or more and can now budget for the future in confidence. That’s exactly the sort of stability we were hoping to provide with that bill.

Join our online town hall next week

I know not everyone can attend our in-person town hall events, so my seatmates and I are holding an online town hall next week where folks can ask us questions and share feedback about the session.

The stream will be Monday, April 27, from 6-7 p.m. live on YouTube and social media, and the video will stay online for anyone to watch later.

We’ll watch the comments section for questions posted live during the event, but it’s helpful if folks submit their questions through this form ahead of time to make sure we cover the topics you’re most interested in.

Thank you so much for reading and staying in touch! If you have thoughts or feedback, you can always reach me any time at Noel.Frame@leg.wa.gov.

Sen. Noel Frame