Week 7: Budget Negotiations Begin, Final Push for Bills This Week
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org As reported last week, both the House and Senate Democratic budget chairs released their proposed supplemental budgets for operations, construction, and transportation. Despite an uptick in projected revenue collections for the current biennium (ending June 30, 2027) and the next biennium (July 1, 2027 – June 30, 2029), both operating budgets…
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Advocacy
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Legislative
Week 6: Revenues up, budgets released, and House and Senate propose cuts to K12 education
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Last Monday, the revenue forecast adopted by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council increases state general fund (GFS) or near GFS revenue by more than $1.8 billion over the next three and a half years. Collections are projected at $827 million more in revenue this current 2025-27 biennium, and just over $1 billion…
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Advocacy
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Legislative
A Letter to PTA Members: Our Position on the Proposed Millionaires Tax
From: Washington State PTA President and Advocacy Director Date: February 18, 2026 Dear PTA Members, If you’ve been following the news lately, you’ve likely heard about SB 6346 and HB 2724 – commonly called the “Millionaires Tax.” These bills propose a 9.9% tax on individuals with annual adjusted gross income over $1 million, affecting an estimated one-half of one percent of Washington households. With…
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Advocacy
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Legislative
Week 5: Fiscal Cutoff Passes, Tuesday Marks Major Deadline
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Monday, February 9th, was the cutoff by which bills needed to pass out of fiscal committees to remain under consideration this session (See the list of bills that failed to make the deadline towards the end of the report). The House and Senate worked through the week, including a couple of late nights, and the House worked…
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Advocacy
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Legislative
Week 4: House Finance Committee Exempts K-12 Schools from Sales Tax Extension
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org As mentioned last week, February 4th was the first session cutoff, with hundreds of bills failing to pass out of policy committees in the chamber in which they started. Then it was a quick rush to the fiscal committee cutoff, which is today. The Senate Ways & Means Committee chose to work a bit longer on Thursday and…
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Advocacy
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Legislative
Week 3: February 4 Policy Cutoff Looms, One Third of 2026 Session Complete
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org This Wednesday marks the first of many deadlines by which bills need to advance to stay under consideration this session. As a reminder, only about 10% of bills introduced actually pass both chambers and are signed into law by the governor. Here are the next few deadlines to keep in mind as lawmakers move towards the…
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Advocacy
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Legislative
Week 2: Write your Legislators during Focus on Advocacy Week
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org This week is Focus on Advocacy Week, when WSPTA members will have the opportunity to send a tailored email about Top 5 priorities and current issues each day, beginning today. Members of the WSPTA Advocacy Committee have made this easy by writing letters that can be personalized by you before sending to your legislators or specific chambers. Look for…
Week 1: See you at Focus Day!
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Parents and students will descend on Olympia today to meet with their state legislators during the annual Washington State PTA Focus Day. Members also will hear from Senators and Representatives over the lunch hour and will participate in a march around the capitol grounds in support of closing K12 funding gaps. If you weren’t able to travel to the State Capitol,…
2026 Legislative Session: And … We’re Off!
By Marie Sullivan, legconsultant@wastatepta.org Today marks the start of the 60-day session and it’s already setting off at a fast pace with public hearings on Governor Bob Ferguson’s proposed 2026 supplemental budgets and a variety of policy bills. Remember, all bills from 2025 are still eligible to move forward this year, but they’ll need to meet cutoff deadlines. And, legislators have been very busy “pre-filing” bills which will…
January Checklist for Councils Supporting Local PTAs
January Monthly Tasks Continue assisting with items from the “Ongoing Tasks” list. Refer to the January Checklist for Running Your PTA. Reflections entries due to WSPTA by January 12 Councils can access the submission form here. Contact Reflections@wastatepta.org with questions. Remind local PTAs about the 1099-NEC due for independent contractors by January 31 For contractors, you paid more than $600…
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