Legislature
House Bill 1057, Substitute House Bill 1057: State Operating Budget. Passed the House on Friday, 53-35.
This budget proposal calls for some $800 million in new education spending ($704 for K-12 education, $93 million for higher education) over the next two years. The bill dropped the extension of the business and occupation tax surcharge on service professionals, and reduced the number of tax breaks to be eliminated or tax hikes from 11 to 7. However, the accompanying education funding bills eliminate additional tax breaks, including a requirement that nonresidents apply for sales tax refunds instead of getting them automatically
Voting yes: Rep. Luis Moscoso, D-Mountlake Terrace; Rep. Derek Stanford, D-Bothell; Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo; Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Edmonds; Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park; Rep. Cindy Ryu, D-Shoreline; Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip; Rep. Mike Sells, D-Everett; Rep. Hans Dunshee, Snohomish
Voting no: Rep. Dave Hayes, R-Camano Island; Rep. Norma Smith, R-Whidbey Island; Rep. Dan Kristiansen, R-Snohomish; Rep. Elizabeth Scott, R-Monroe
Excused: Rep. Mike Hope, R-Lake Stevens
House Bill 2034, Engrossed Substitute House Bill 2034: Funding education and higher education by narrowing or eliminating tax breaks. Passed the House on Friday, 52-40.
This is a companion measure to the operating budget (HB 1057) also passed by the House. It appropriates $107.7 million for kindergarten through grade 12 and $78.7 million for higher education by eliminating certain tax preferences, including the preferential business and occupation (B&O) tax rate of 0.275 percent for travel agents and tour operators and the B&O tax rate of 0.138 percent for resellers of prescription drugs. It also repeals the sales tax exemption for bottled water and expires the high technology sales and use tax deferral program on July 1, 2013. The bill also provides new funding formula allocations to support increased instructional hours for secondary students, for the Transitional Bilingual Instruction Program, and increased staffing for counselors and family engagement coordinators.
Voting yes: Moscoso, Stanford, Liias, Roberts, Kagi, Ryu, McCoy, Sells, Dunshee
Voting no: Hayes, Smith, Kristiansen, Scott
Excused: Hope
House Bill 2036, Engrossed House Bill 2036: Changing the nonresident sales tax exemption into a refund program. Passed the House on Friday, 52-35.
The original bill proposed to eliminate a range of tax breaks, including preferential business and occupation tax rates for certain services such as insurance agents and tour operators. A floor amendment struck all the provisions of the bill except the provision changing the nonresident sales tax exemption into a refund program.
Voting yes: Moscoso, Stanford, Liias, Roberts, Kagi, Ryu, McCoy, Sells, Dunshee
Voting no: Hayes, Smith, Kristiansen, Scott
Excused: Hope
WashingtonVotes.org
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