Dear friends and neighbors,
I hope you’ll join me and my seatmates on Monday for a telephone town hall. More on that below.
First, I’m pleased to share that the Senate passed the Millionaires Tax this week to help fund schools, health care, and cut taxes for working families and small businesses.
Our broken tax code asks the most of those who can least afford it. Senate Bill 6346 begins to fix that by imposing a 9.9% tax on annual income over $1 million; households with incomes of $1 million and below would pay nothing (so a person making $1.2 million in a year will pay the tax only on $200,000). The wealthiest Washingtonians who would pay this tax just received a large, permanent tax break from the Trump administration (thanks to H.R. 1) funded in part by health care cuts.
The current version of the bill includes a tax cut for small businesses by doubling our small business tax credit, the elimination of the sales tax on personal care products, and an expansion of the Working Families Tax Credit to more people.
The bill now moves to the House of Representatives where it will likely change. There is still a lot of work to do before it can head to the governor’s desk for his signature, but Democrats in the House and Senate, as well as the governor, share the goal of fixing our upside-down tax code.
Another bill to help make our tax code fairer passed the Senate this week. Senate Bill 6162 expands the senior citizen property tax relief program, creates a standard $7,500 deduction for those who qualify, and consolidates the state property tax into one part. This is an opportunity to help keep seniors, those with disabilities, and disabled veterans in their homes and streamline property taxes statewide.
Noncompete bill advances
Because of legislation I sponsored in 2019, Washington has strong protections for workers who face employer-imposed noncompetition contracts. I am glad to support House Bill 1155, which would finally ban those contracts outright (I also worked on the Senate version of this bill). Taking a new job with better pay or leaving a company to start your own business shouldn’t be met with interference from your current employer. I’m excited to share that the bill passed the House with bipartisan support last week and is scheduled for a hearing in the Senate Labor & Commerce Committee at 10:30 a.m. on Monday.
You’re invited!
I hope you’ll join me, Rep. Shelley Kloba, and Rep. Davina Duerr for a live telephone town hall on Monday, Feb. 23 from 6:30-7:30 p.m. Calls will go out to people throughout the district at 6:30 p.m. If you don’t get one, you can participate by dialing 855-756-7520 and entering the ID code 129671# after the prompt. We look forward to taking your questions about our work in Olympia.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to my office directly with questions, concerns, or feedback.
Sincerely,
Derek Stanford
