After a resounding defeat at the ballot for multi-millionaire Brian Heywood’s initiatives to give himself a tax cut at our expense, Washington legislators must heed the voice of voters and fill revenue shortfalls by making the wealthy few pay what they truly owe in taxes. Moreover, with Trump’s billionaire oligarch administration beginning, lawmakers must act swiftly to protect Washingtonians from the MAGA agenda. Here at Fuse, we’re focused on making progress in key areas that will blunt the effects of MAGA’s threats to defund our state, and ensure all Washingtonians have a chance to live in communities where their rights are protected and their basic needs are met.
To advance these priorities, we’ve identified a number of bills that, if enacted, would bring needed progress on everything from fully funding Washington’s schools and assistance programs like Paid Family Medical Leave, to building enough affordable housing for everyone to have a home.
All of these bills can also be found on the Take Action page, where you can send a letter of support to your lawmakers in just a few clicks. We’ll update these as they are filed or passed and session continues, so check back regularly to see what we’re fighting for!
Rebalance our upside-down tax code and fight wealth inequality
We’re going to continue the fight to make sure that Washington’s ultra-wealthy pay their share for the community services that we all rely on by supporting new approaches to taxing wealth. One of those approaches is to create the Capital Assets Ownership Tax, a so-called “wealth tax” that would be levied on financial assets like stocks and bonds worth over $100 million.
We’re also working to boost funding for the assistance programs we all rely on by removing the cap on payroll taxes paid by employers. This cap is set arbitrarily at $186,600, meaning that wealthy corporations who pay their employees more than this currently get a tax break. Removing the cap and requiring corporations to pay taxes on their largest salaries could raise $4 billion per year for programs like our Paid Family Medical Leave and unemployment insurance.
Expanding affordable housing across Washington
No matter how much money we have, we should all be able to live in a home we can afford. We’re fighting for rent stabilization legislation to limit yearly rent increases, so that families can stay in their homes. House Bill 1217 would limit rent increases to 7% and give families six months notice if a landlord wants to raise it by more than 3%, to give them time to plan and budget.
We’re also continuing our advocacy to build more affordable homes every year with a permanent funding source created by rebalancing the tax rates on the sale of multi-million dollar mansions. This legislation would increase the real estate excise tax for multi-million dollar mansion sales, raising $150 million per year for permanently affordable housing across the state.
Again, all of these bills can also be found on our Take Action page, where you can send a letter of support to your lawmakers in just a few clicks:
| Take Action! |
Other important bills this session we support:
Immigrant Justice: Immigrant workers who pay taxes in our state deserve to access the same kinds of wage replacement benefits as other workers when they're laid off. So we're joining with immigrant justice partners to make this right by fighting to give all workers the help they need if they’re laid off by their bosses.
Voting Justice: Expanding Automatic Voter Registration to include naturalization ceremonies, Medicaid sign ups, and re-entry from the criminal legal system. Allowing all jurisdictions to choose to implement Ranked Choice Voting, while creating consistent guidelines for RCV across the state. Require jails to meet minimum ballot access standards, provide voter registration forms, and allow election officials to access jails to provide ballots and do outreach.
Reproductive Freedom: Pursuing an update to 2023’s Shield Law to more precisely and robustly protect those assisting patients in accessing abortion and gender affirming care.
Fighting Climate Change: Supporting smart and responsible climate investments to defend the Climate Commitment Act from misuse and ensure the law is used to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, invest in natural climate solutions, and prioritize frontline communities.
Police Accountability: Ending traffic stops for non-moving violations to increase safety for the public and officers.
