(The Center Square) – Democrats in the Washington State Senate have given final approval to an income tax bill on Wednesday night, clearing a path for it to head for the governor’s desk for his expected signature.
Senate Bill 6346 will put a nearly 10% tax on income north of $1 million a year, or combined household income above that threshold, to fund several programs, provide tax breaks for lower income families and bolster the general fund.
The measure cleared the House of Representatives on Tuesday evening following more than 24 hours of continuous debate.
Eight House Democrats joined all Republicans in opposition to the bill, which passed on a 51-46 vote.
Ahead of final debate on the Senate floor Wednesday, Republicans called for a point of order, raising objections about the scope and object of the bill.
“According to Senate Rule 66, all the things in the bill have to be relevant to the bill as it left the Senate,” said Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, in a Wednesday evening interview with The Center Square. “The bill as it left the Senate created an income tax in 2029 and it distributed the revenue and gave a little bit of tax relief in 2029 and 2030, and it had a provision that nullified the act in its entirety if the tax was struck down as unconstitutional.”
Lt. Gov. Denny Heck in his capacity as Senate president ruled against Republicans, which Gildon said was not a huge surprise, though disappointing.
“There were actually two votes that happened,” Gildon said. “One was to either concur or not concur with the changes that were made over in the House. Of course, we voted to not concur, but they passed that anyway.”
Immediately after that came final passage and Gildon explained when they are doing concurrence, members are limited in their remarks to only address changes from the other chamber, which is why there were no passionate arguments on either side before final passage.
“So, the only thing we were allowed to talk about was the changes the House made to the Senate,” Gildon explained. “Any passionate comments against the income tax bill itself could not be made by any members. That would have been outside of the limits of debate for concurrence. We were only allowed to talk about the changes the House made.”
Gildon said Republicans don’t regret the way they went about trying to put down the bill.
“I mean, you couldn’t leave any stone unturned,” he said. “We had to use every bit of options that we had, whether it is parliamentary procedure or whatever it may be. And in this case, we felt there was an outside chance that we could make the argument that some of the changes that the House made were outside the scope of the bill. We felt we could at least make the argument … but the lieutenant governor would have been hard pressed to accept our arguments at that point.”
The final vote in the Senate was 27 to 21, with three Democrats joining all Republicans in opposition.
The bill now heads to the desk of Gov. Bob Ferguson, who has already said he will sign it into law.
It’s expected to trigger immediate legal challenges and a major ballot initiative campaign when it becomes law.
