wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 2167 > Original Bill
The legislature finds that Washington is now the fourth most expensive state in the nation to live in and that many residents are struggling to make ends meet under the weight of rising housing, transportation, and everyday living costs. Meaningful tax relief, rather than additional taxation, is necessary to help Washington families remain stable and financially secure.
The legislature also finds that ever-increasing taxes imposed at every level of government only makes this affordability crisis worse. Layering new taxes onto already overburdened households and businesses accelerates the cost of living, suppresses economic opportunity, and makes it harder for employers to retain and hire workers. The state already collects more than enough revenue to fund essential services, and that continued revenue growth demonstrates that the problem is not a lack of funding but a lack of responsible fiscal restraint. We have a spending problem, not a revenue problem.
The legislature further finds that proposals to impose a broad-based income tax or a tax on individual earnings are deeply misguided and would be economically damaging to Washington state. An income tax or a tax on individual earnings would undermine the state's competitive advantage, drive employers and investment elsewhere, and burden families with an unpredictable and intrusive new tax. Such a tax has consistently been ruled unconstitutional and consistently rejected by voters, reinforcing the idea that it is an inappropriate, unwanted, and unnecessary new tax.
Therefore, the legislature intends to reduce the state sales tax to deliver meaningful relief to working families, while attempting to mitigate the harm caused by an income tax or a tax on individual earnings.
In the event the legislature levies an income tax or a tax on individual earnings, the department of revenue shall reduce the state retail sales and use tax rate established in RCW 82.08.050 a commensurate amount relative to the projected revenue increase to the state from the income tax or the tax on individual earnings.