Washington voters will get their chance in November to embrace or reject the state’s new income tax on households with earnings greater than a million dollars a year.
Even with the changes, revenues for the state’s two-year transportation budget are expected to be millions of dollars lower than previously forecastas demand for gas declines, fee collections drop, and there is continuing uncertainty around how much federal transportation funding for states will be available.
Over 200 new Washington state laws took effect June 11. Among them are tax hikes, enhancements to the state’s Voting Rights Act and guidance for retailers on the penny phase-out.
A federal judge in Massachusetts June 8 struck down the Trump administration’s efforts to require a $100,000 visa fee for highly skilled immigrant workers, finding the policy is an unlawful tax.
State agency leaders received a dire warning from Gov. Bob Ferguson’s office on June 5 that they’re headed toward “what will likely be the most challenging budget any of us has yet faced.”
Let’s Go Washington, the initiative sponsor, has until July 2 to turn in at least 308,911 valid signatures of registered voters to qualify for the ballot. State election officials suggest submitting at least 390,000 to account for invalid ones.
The U.S. Department of Justice’s recent decision to downgrade the drug classification for medical cannabis will help medical marijuana businesses. But the broader divide between federal and state marijuana policy remains largely intact, leaving states to navigate a fragmented and still-evolving cannabis landscape with few clear answers about what comes next.
The Richland School District has launched a community facilities task force to develop a long-range facilities plan following a failed bond measure in 2024 to build a third high school in West Richland.
