wa-law.org > bill > 2025-26 > HB 2579 > Original Bill
The legislature recognizes that every Washingtonian should have access to trusted, noncommercial media that informs, educates, and connects our communities. The legislature further recognizes that media is a valuable commodity that contributes to the vitality of the state and the cultural integrity of the state's communities.
The legislature finds that noncommercial media provides a significant public benefit by providing information related to public safety, emergency broadcasting, public service announcements, community events, and educational partnerships.
The legislature also finds that increased funding for noncommercial media's annual operations and projects will likely increase revenue for rural economies and local businesses and create opportunities to increase community connection and build a diverse workforce. The legislature recognizes that different regions of the state have different needs, and residents should have the autonomy to discern and craft strategies to meet their regional needs while coordinating with each other and statewide.
The legislature also finds an urgent need to engage and educate communities for coordination of existing resources, capacity building, and establishing groundwork to support digital equity for more coordinated emergency services, efficiencies, partnerships, streamlined data collection, and group fund development that will contribute to regional economic development in a manner that is multilingual and culturally responsive.
Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to establish new funding for public media and digital equity.
The department shall establish a public media broadcaster program to promote public media. The department shall award funds to eligible entities on an annual basis, subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose. The sole purpose of the program is to ensure that every Washingtonian has access to noncommercial media that informs, educates, and connects Washington communities.
The department must identify eligibility criteria for the program. In establishing the criteria, the department shall prioritize:
Community, public radio, or television organizations based in the state;
Noncommercial, nonreligious, and not-for-profit organizations;
Broadcasters that do not include a paywall for core program services;
Organizations that have provided service in the state for a minimum of seven years prior to the award;
Organizations that adhere to professional editorial standards;
Organizations whose service includes public safety, emergency broadcasting, public service announcements, access to the arts, community event promotion, and not-for-profit partnerships;
Organizations that make music accessible to everyone, build audiences for the arts by promoting events happening in the community, and provide a platform for artists to reach their audience and build careers;
Organizations whose service includes community activation, free community events calendaring, educational impacts, partnership with public schools as defined in RCW 28A.150.010, and services for young adults after high school graduation, including but not limited to mentoring, internships, or fellowships;
Operations including public transparency and reporting, including but not limited to annual service and impact reports or audits.
The department must identify criteria to prioritize awards under the program. The criteria must include:
Relative scale and community impact;
That 85 percent of the funding awards must be provided to broadcasters that have a budget in excess of $1,000,000. An entity may receive an award of up to eight percent of its annual operating expenses or $1,500,000, whichever is greater;
That 15 percent of the funding awards must be provided to broadcasters who have a budget of less than $1,000,000 and serve rural or frontier counties or urban counties with a hyper-local audience. These awards may be used for annual operations or projects, and must be a minimum of $5,000 and no more than eight percent of the broadcaster's annual operating expenses; and
That all awards must be spent within the state.
Consistent with the department's authority under RCW 43.330.040, the department shall seek gifts, grants, and other contributions from nonstate sources to carry out the purposes of this section.
The department shall establish a digital equity program to create digital access and adoption resource coordinators, and multimedia producer and trainer roles. The program shall award funds to eligible entities on an annual basis, subject to the availability of amounts appropriated for this specific purpose. The purpose of the program is to ensure that every Washingtonian has resources to safely and effectively access the internet and noncommercial media that informs, educates, and connects Washington communities.
For purposes of funding digital equity, the department must identify eligibility criteria for the program. In establishing the criteria, the department shall prioritize:
Community anchor institutions such as a school, library, health clinic, health center, hospital or other medical provider, public safety entity, institution of higher education, public housing organization, or community support organization that facilitate greater use of broadband service by underserved populations;
Accountable communities of health, public access, education, and government television stations;
Workforce development councils, as defined in RCW 28C.18.010;
Washington State University extension offices; and
Operations including public transparency and reporting, including but not limited to annual service and impact reports or audits.
The program must include digital access resource coordinators who will work with coalitions, networks, and broadband action teams that provide online skill building to create safe ways to engage and educate communities about artificial intelligence and online safety.
The coordinators must:
Coordinate content for a central resource database;
Coordinate and build referral networks;
Produce virtual, in-person events, and community connection time to build the groundwork for collaboration and database updating;
Coordinate and share strategies with broadband action teams that focus on network infrastructure and workforce development;
Provide information that is multilingual, culturally responsive, and responsive to the regional community needs; and
Notify the community about grant and funding opportunities.
The program must include multimedia producers and trainers who will increase capacity and support existing community and government media and stations with technical expertise and training.
The producers and trainers must:
Coordinate with community and government media and stations on eligible content;
Identify apprenticeship opportunities;
Provide training; and
Identify opportunities for creative economy and small business intersections.
The program must provide space for trainings, computer labs, studios, pods, booths, and mobile recording and broadcast equipment.
Consistent with the department's authority under RCW 43.330.040, the department shall seek gifts, grants, and other contributions from nonstate sources to carry out the purposes of this section.
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A public media broadcaster and digital equity tax in the amount of 20 cents per month is imposed on the use of all radio access lines by subscribers whose place of primary use is located within the state and by consumers whose retail transactions occur within the state.
The tax imposed under this subsection (1) must be remitted to the department by radio communications service companies, including those companies that resell radio access lines, and sellers of prepaid wireless telecommunications service, on a tax return provided by the department.
For the purposes of this subsection (1), the retail transaction occurs at the location where the transaction is sourced under RCW 82.32.520(3)(c).
A public media broadcaster and digital equity tax in the amount of 20 cents per month is imposed on all interconnected voice over internet protocol service lines in the state. The amount of tax must be uniform for each line and must be levied on no more than the number of voice over internet protocol service lines on an account that is capable of simultaneous unrestricted outward calling to the public switched telephone network. The tax imposed under this subsection (2) must be remitted to the department by interconnected voice over internet protocol service companies on a tax return provided by the department.
A public media broadcaster and digital equity tax in the amount of 20 cents per month is imposed on all switched access lines in the state. The amount of tax must be uniform for each line and must be levied on no more than the number of switched access lines on an account that is capable of simultaneous unrestricted outward calling to the public switched telephone network. The tax imposed under this subsection (3) must be remitted to the department by local exchange companies on a tax return provided by the department.
Tax proceeds collected pursuant to this section must be deposited by the treasurer into the public media broadcaster and digital equity account created in section 7 of this act.
Except as provided otherwise in subsection (2) of this section:
The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax on radio access lines must be collected from the subscriber by the radio communications service company, including those companies that resell radio access lines, providing the radio access line to the subscriber, and the seller of prepaid wireless telecommunications services.
The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax on interconnected voice over internet protocol service lines must be collected from the subscriber by the interconnected voice over internet protocol service company providing the interconnected voice over internet protocol service line to the subscriber.
The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax on switched access lines must be collected from the subscriber by the local exchange company.
The amount of the tax must be stated separately on the billing statement that is sent to the subscriber.
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The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax imposed by this chapter must be collected from the consumer by the seller of a prepaid wireless telecommunications service for each retail transaction occurring in this state.
The department must transfer all tax proceeds remitted by a seller under this subsection (2) to the public media broadcaster and digital equity account created in section 7 of this act.
The taxes required by this subsection (2) to be collected by the seller must be separately stated in any sales invoice or instrument of sale provided to the consumer.
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The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax imposed by this chapter must be paid by the subscriber to the radio communications service company providing the radio access line, the local exchange company, or the interconnected voice over internet protocol service company providing the interconnected voice over internet protocol service line.
Each radio communications service company, local exchange company, and interconnected voice over internet protocol service company must collect from the subscriber the full amount of the taxes payable. The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax required by this chapter to be collected by a company or seller must be held in trust by the company or seller until paid to the department. Any radio communications service company, local exchange company, or interconnected voice over internet protocol service company that appropriates or converts the tax collected to its own use or to any use other than the payment of the tax to the extent that the money collected is not available for payment on the due date as prescribed in this chapter is guilty of a gross misdemeanor.
If any radio communications service company, local exchange company, or interconnected voice over internet protocol service company fails to collect the public media broadcaster and digital equity tax or, after collecting the tax, fails to pay it to the department in the manner prescribed by this chapter, whether such failure is the result of its own act or the result of acts or conditions beyond its control, the company or seller is personally liable to the state for the amount of the tax, unless the company or seller has taken from the buyer in good faith documentation, in a form and manner prescribed by the department, stating that the buyer is not a subscriber or consumer or is otherwise not liable for the public media broadcaster and digital equity tax.
The amount of tax, until paid by the subscriber to the radio communications service company, local exchange company, interconnected voice over internet protocol service company, or the department, constitutes a debt from the subscriber to the company, or from the consumer to the seller. Any company or seller that fails or refuses to collect the tax as required with intent to violate the provisions of this chapter or to gain some advantage or benefit, either direct or indirect, and any subscriber or consumer who refuses to pay any tax due under this chapter is guilty of a misdemeanor. The public media broadcaster and digital equity tax required by this chapter to be collected by the radio communications service company, local exchange company, or interconnected voice over internet protocol service company must be stated separately on the billing statement that is sent to the subscriber.
If a subscriber has failed to pay to the radio communications service company, local exchange company, or interconnected voice over internet protocol service company the public media broadcaster and digital equity tax imposed by this chapter and the company or seller has not paid the amount of the tax to the department, the department may, in its discretion, proceed directly against the subscriber or consumer for collection of the tax, in which case a penalty of 10 percent may be added to the amount of the tax for failure of the subscriber or consumer to pay the tax to the company or seller, regardless of when the tax is collected by the department.
The public media broadcaster and digital equity account is created in the state treasury. All receipts from the tax imposed pursuant to this chapter must be deposited into the account. Moneys may only be spent after appropriation.
The department may retain up to three percent of available funds for evaluation and administration of the public media broadcaster and digital equity programs created under sections 2 and 3 of this act.
The remaining funds must be distributed as follows:
80 percent must be used to fund grants under the public media broadcaster program established under section 2 of this act; and
20 percent must be used to fund grants under the digital equity program established under section 3 of this act.
Moneys in the account may not be used to supplant general fund appropriations for public media and digital equity.
A city or county may not impose a tax, measured on a per line basis, on radio access lines, interconnected voice over internet protocol service lines, or switched access lines, for the purpose of funding public media and digital equity.
The definitions in RCW 82.14B.020 apply throughout this chapter.