After weeks of doing little more than re-passing bills from last year’s session, state lawmakers this week approved a sweeping new tax increase on business owners. The House worked late through the evening on Thursday to debate some three-dozen amendments to SB 6492, a bill to replace a temporary tax on business owners with a permanent, general tax increase imposed on service businesses worth more than $1 million annually. The low dollar threshold on gross worth means that tens of thousands of business owners across the state will pay the new tax, even in years when they lose money.

The amendments, proposed by mostly Republicans, would have exempted various business operators, especially health care providers, from the tax hike. The intent was to help keep access to health care affordable.

Every one of the amendments was voted down, and the bill passed mostly along party lines with a 52-45 vote. Opposition was bipartisan; all Republicans and five Democrats voted against it. Olympia observers noted that the Democrats voting against it are from swing districts around the Puget Sound area, including Rep. Mari Levitt (D-University Place), Rep. Jared Mead (D-Mill Creek), Rep. Dave Paul (D-Oak Harbor), Rep. Bill Ramos (D-Issaquah), and Rep. Sharon Shewmake (D-Bellingham).

The bill has passed the Senate and is on its way to the Governor’s desk for his signature, making it the first measure to pass both houses this session. The tax hike would raise the current 1.5% rate to 1.75%, a rate increase of about 15% and would add an additional 1.22% surcharge on top of taxes paid by large computing companies. If enacted, the law would take effect on April 1st of this year and would apply retro-actively to January 1, 2020.

Meanwhile, deadlines for passing bills out of their originating committees are looming.

Lawmakers in both chambers have moved a set of bills that would legalize sports betting. On Thursday, the Senate Labor and Commerce Committee voted to pass SB 6394, to allow sports betting in the state’s tribal casinos, a boon to the state’s Indian tribes, while the House Appropriations Committee has scheduled a hearing on the House version of the bill (HB 2638) for this weekend. The House Commerce and Gaming Committee approved HB 2638 last week.

Advocates of sports gambling say they have the support to get full approval by the Legislature and send a bill to the governor this session. Sen. Rebecca Saldaña (D-Seattle,) sponsor of SB 6394, said: “I feel like there is a strong pathway for us to get it to the governor this year.’’ The Seattle Times reports that Rep. Strom Peterson (D-Edmonds), sponsor of HB 2638, said in an interview Thursday he is confident his bill will be forwarded to the full House for a vote, and that both gambling initiatives “can be fast-tracked this spring to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk.”

The cut-off deadline for policy bills to pass out of committee in their chamber of origin is today. Fiscal bills have until next Tuesday, February 11th, to advance.

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