wa-law.org > bill > 2023-24 > SB 5158 > Substitute Bill
The intent of the legislature is to make state and local tax revenue as open, transparent, and publicly accessible as is feasible. Increasing the ease of public access to state and local tax information significantly contributes to governmental accountability, public participation, and open government; this is particularly true when the information is currently available from disparate government sources, but is difficult for the public to collect and efficiently aggregate.
By January 1, 2025, the department must make publicly available an online searchable database for taxes and tax rates in the state for each taxing district. The information must be aggregated by type of tax and accessible by entering a physical address for each residency or business. In addition to searching by physical address for each residence or business, searches must be accommodated by navigating through a map of the state as a whole and down to the level of each taxing district.
To facilitate the department's efforts in creating and maintaining the searchable database of each tax rate for all taxing districts in the state, each taxing district must report its tax rates to the department by September 30, 2023. In addition, every taxing district must report any changes to its tax rates within 30 days of an enactment of a different rate.
At a minimum the following taxes and rates must be included in the database and broken down to the taxing district or jurisdiction level:
State and local sales and use taxes;
State and local regular and excess property taxes;
Local lodging taxes; and
State and local motor vehicle taxes.
The tax rates in the database must be updated as follows:
State and local sales and use taxes and local lodging taxes must be updated quarterly; and
State and local regular and excess property taxes must be updated annually.
The database must also contain information, or links to information, on additional selective sales taxes, selective business taxes, and taxes that are in lieu of property taxes.
The database created under this section must be able to be accessed by and accessed from the state expenditure information website created under RCW 44.48.150.
The department must build a tax rate calculator that allows taxpayers to calculate their potential taxes. The department must add other geographically based taxes to the searchable database as data is made available to the department. The department must report biennially to the fiscal committees of the legislature on efforts made in the prior biennium toward improving database functionality. An initial report must be submitted to the fiscal committees of the legislature by January 11, 2027, and a final report submitted by January 8, 2029.
(1) By January 1, 2009, in collaboration with the office of financial management, using existing databases and structures currently shared, the office of the legislative evaluation and accountability program committee shall establish and make available to the public a searchable state expenditure information website. The state expenditure information website shall must provide access to current budget data, access to current accounting data for budgeted expenditures and staff, and access to historical data. At a minimum, the website will provide access or links to the following information as data are available: