Dear friends and neighbors,
Now that session has ended (and spring weather has arrived, at least for now), I wanted to share more about some of the work we were able to get done this session. One of our biggest priorities this year was affordability. I talked about one of the biggest affordability wins in my last e-newsletter, the Millionaires Tax, which will eliminate sales tax on diapers, over-the-counter medications, and hygiene products, meaning nearly every item you purchase at the grocery store will be tax free starting in 2029. It also expands the Working Families Tax Credit to 460,000 additional Washingtonians, provides dedicated funding for childcare for low-income families, and will pay for free school meals for all students in Washington public schools (all starting in 2029 when the revenue starts to come in).
That’s a landmark investment in our working families, but it’s far from the only thing we did. We also expanded access to energy assistance for low-income families across the state to help pay for their energy bills. We expanded our property tax exemptions so that more seniors, veterans, and people with disabilities are paying less in taxes. We helped to preserve access to preventive care like vaccines or routine cancer screenings, ensuring that out-of-pocket costs won’t go up for these services.
We banned non-compete agreements so that workers have control over when they leave their job and what they do next. We strengthened our states wage theft enforcement so that workers are getting paid what they’re owed. We made sure that when a grocery store leaves a location a new grocery store isn’t prohibited from opening in the same place – maintaining competition and access to food for impacted communities across the state.
We’re making it cheaper to build condominiums by changing burdensome insurance requirements. We’re also making it more affordable to build high- and mid-rise apartments by allowing scissor stairs to save space and reduce construction costs. We’re making it easier for religious organizations to build affordable housing on unused land. We’re making it more affordable to upgrade the energy efficiency of your home or rental by allowing the utility to front the cost so that you can pay it back over time.
There’s only so much that we can do at the state level to combat the effects of inflation, of tariffs, and other incredibly reckless policy decisions from the federal government that are hitting Washingtonians. We worked hard this year to help bring down costs at the grocery store, to bring down the cost of housing or heating your home, to bring down costs to access healthcare. I’m proud of what we were able to get done, and I know the work will continue.
