Debate stretches into 17th hour as lawmakers in state House consider state income tax

OLYMPIA — For the past 2½ months, the biggest talk in the state Legislature is how to deal with a shortage of money.

On Tuesday morning, after debating through the night in a marathon House session topping more than 17 hours on a bill to impose an income tax, the shortage lawmakers face is sleep.

Consideration of the legislation in the House of Representatives began just before 6 p.m. Monday and is ongoing as of 10 a.m. Tuesday.

If passed, the bill would impose a 9.9% tax on income starting on 2029 on joint filers or individuals above $1 million, with the money used to cut some other kinds of taxes as well as boost spending.

Ahead of a formal vote legislators introduced roughly 80 amendments to the bill, and lawmakers have opted to give extended speeches on each one.

At 9 a.m. Tuesday, more than 20 of the amendments had yet to be considered.

State Rep. Julia Reed, D-Seattle, said Tuesday that “however long it takes is however long it takes.”

“It is a big, historic change for our state. And like with any historic change, as badly as the majority party wants to accomplish this, the minority party wants to stop it,” Reed said. “And wants to retain the tax system we have, which is inequitable and unfair.”

Reed said Democrats have tools that would curtail debate and speed up consideration, though they have not used them, and would not do so unless a previous agreement was reneged on.

“We think that it’s really important, it’s important to the people of Washington. We feel confident that the people have our back, we don’t need to force the debate, we can let people have their say,” Reed said.

State Rep. Peter Abbarno, the House Republican caucus chair, said Tuesday morning the intention was to raise awareness of “the flaws of the bill.”

“The Democrats wanted to bring the bill up at night, knowing there was 80-plus amendments, and a bunch of them, 20 of them, were Democratic amendments. So, they weren’t all Republican amendments,” Abbarno said. “I think the point is to point out there’s lots of flaws in this bill, and flaws in the process.”

Abbarno said that while the intention wasn’t to stall, but “if you’re going to bring up probably the largest piece of policy, tax policy, in the state of Washington in probably 100 years, you’ve gotta try to make it better or at least let the public know what’s in it.”

Abbarno said House Republicans received word late Monday morning that the debate would be brought up later that day.

“There was no notice, so there wasn’t any preparation,” Abbarno said. “I think the people in our district send us here to do a job, which is to make sure we talk about the bills and issues that are really important to them. And this is by far the most important one coming for southwest Washington.”

Debate on the legislation is expected to last into Tuesday afternoon. As the debate stretched into its 16th hour, lawmakers said they did not recall a similarly long debate.

“This is by far the longest debate I’ve ever been a part of,” Reed said. “I would guess that it’s the longest debate most of the members in the chamber have been a part of.”

While lawmakers were seen resting on couches on the wings of the House chamber Tuesday morning as debate continued on the House floor, sleep was a luxury for most.

“I had a designated rest break between 3 a.m. and 5 a.m. and I, like, laid down on the couch in someone’s office for like an hour and a half, but I’m not sure I got any sleep,” Reed said. “But I was able to lie down in the dark for a little bit.”