Wednesday Evening Headlines

I'm just a bill. Yes, I'm only a bill.

We all remember this song. It made it all seem so simple and turns out it's not. Who writes,

influences, and kills, bills, it gets messy. I'm Scott Greenstone.

And I'm Libby Dankman. On Sound Politics, we tell that story. The inside track on how

policy gets made in this Washington and the other one. And how it impacts you.

It's now on the KUW app or wherever you get your podcasts.

Good afternoon from the KUW Newsroom. This is Seattle now. I'm Paige Browning with a roundup

of today's top stories. It's Wednesday, March 11th.

Tonight it could finally happen, folks. A state income tax in Washington hitting incomes

over a million dollars. The state house approved it after a marathon 25-hour debate last

night. Tonight it's in the Senate's hands. We'll have more on this in our feature story

coming up in a few minutes. Here's one that's already been approved. The legislature has

approved limits on how automated license plate readers and their data can be used.

Now it's sitting on the governor's desk. The bill bans local police departments from

sharing license plate footage with civil immigration enforcement agents. It also calls

for license plate data that's not being used in a police investigation to be scrubbed

after 21 days. And Washington Governor Bob Ferguson has signed into law a coal tax that's

intended to keep coal-fired power plants closed. The Washington State Standard reports the

new law makes it prohibitively expensive to operate a coal plant. It applies a sales tax

to coal deliveries and also requires coal operator trans-alta to purchase climate pollution

credits through the state's auctions. A trans-alta coal plant in Lewis County shuttered

in December, but the Trump administration has made moves to try to keep it alive. A bigger

story in people's three-foot zone today. Winter is back.

Yeah, this is one of the stronger systems that we've gotten in a while, especially for

the mountains with the amount of snow accumulation that it's bringing.

Melissa Gonzalez Fuentes is a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Authorities

have issued a blizzard warning for the mountains starting at six o'clock tonight. Here's

Melissa's colleague Rachel Fuchs with some of those details.

We're forecasting several feet of snow in total over the course of the event during the

blizzard warning on Wednesday night. When gas up to 50 miles an hour are possible out of

the southwest. Main hazards with those winds will include visibility reduced to a quarter

mile or less with the snow making travel extremely difficult and risk of tree damage.

Lowland areas can expect significant rain and a wind advisory covering almost all of

Western Washington. Prepare for power outages and consider delaying trips in the mountains,

especially if you're not versed in snow driving.

Measles are still on our mind. Infectious disease experts say they're concerned about the potential

spread of measles in Seattle and beyond during the upcoming FIFA Men's World Cup. More

than 1200 cases have been reported nationwide so far this year and the disease is highly

contagious. During an outbreak, contact tracers with public health departments try to document

where an infected person has been, who they've been in contact with and determine their

immunization status. But if a measles carrier came to a World Cup match, that's a huge stadium

full of people. That's really not possible to do targeted contact tracing when it's just

essentially the entire population. That's Dr. Sherida Dan Narete with UW Medicine.

Washington State recommends everyone over 12 months old get the MMR vaccine. Our state has

seen 26 cases this year already more than double all of last year's total. Speaking of the

World Cup, the sports minister of Iran has announced his country's soccer team cannot play in

this year's tournament because of the U.S. Israeli attack on his country. The team was scheduled

to face Egypt at Seattle's Lumen Field June 26th. We've yet to learn what that will mean for

the schedule of games. This afternoon, business leaders are meeting to discuss the economic health

of downtown Seattle. It's part of the annual state of downtown event. They're giving the city's

recovery mixed reviews. Joshua McNichols has more. Downtown Seattle has spent six years climbing

out of a hole. The one left by the pandemic when many workers left to work from home and never came

back. Office vacancies soared, retail businesses failed, but today there are bright spots.

Some office businesses are signing long-term leases to lock in low rents. They're like raccoons

that find a great big dent to move into because the bears have all cleared out. And foot traffic is

creeping back up, 4% gain over last year. The number of people living downtown reached record

levels. Still, that momentum may not last. Economic uncertainty tends to drive developers into

hibernation. Joshua McNichols, K-U-A-W news.

A few short stories to keep you apprised of. Seattle's Wing Luke Museum has named a new executive

director a year and a half after losing its previous leader. Chrissy, Shimizu, will start in May.

She previously led the social justice nonprofit Puget Sound Sage and was a former fundraising

director at Wing Luke. One of Seattle's notable billionaires has decided to leave.

Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz has announced in a post on LinkedIn, he and his wife are moving

to Miami for its sunshine and to be closer to children and grandchildren. He did not specifically

mentions Washington's potential income tax, but he did write that he hopes, quote,

Washington will remain a place for business to thrive. And a road report, the Northbound lanes

on the bridge that carries highway 99 over the Duwamish River will now stay closed until Friday

night. It's the span that connects South Park and Georgetown. Cruz are repairing cracks in the

steel deck, which is more damaged than originally thought.

Now our feature story today. Washington State is one step closer to passing the so-called

millionaires tax. The State House approved it after a marathon 25 hour debate last night.

Once state senators give the bill their final approval, it moves on to Governor Ferguson, who says

he's looking forward to signing Washington's first ever income tax into law. State government

reporter Sarah Meises Tan has been following these developments closely and she spoke earlier today

with KUW's Angela King. This was probably the most controversial bill of the legislative session.

How did the final vote unfold? So it was an absolute bear of a debate that stretched on for

25 hours from start to finish. We're told this was the longest nonstop floor debate in recent

memory. It was pretty emotional on the floor when the vote was finally called. There were cheers

and there were tears from lawmakers and staffers when it finally passed. Before hand, Republicans vowed

that they would fight the tax with everything that they had and they did. The bill garnered over

80 amendments. Those are proposed changes even before it hit the house floor. So you could see for

a couple days what was to come. Republicans tried to add exemptions for farmers and for people who

paid income tax in Oregon already. For people who had worked for only one week in the state,

they tried to lower the tax to 1% from 9% and they tried to punt the debate until next year.

Ultimately, the only two changes that were taken up on the floor and added to the bill were an

exemption for tribal income and another for libraries. Now supporters say this tax will help

balance out Washington's regressive tax system. How much will this bill move the needle on that?

Yeah, so I think this really depends on who you ask. So supporters will say that this current

tax system puts a heavier burden on lower income people than higher income people. So

taking a step back here, Washington's main tax revenue is from sales tax. So in simplest terms,

buying a bottle of say shampoo will weigh more heavily on a low income person than a high income

person, even though that shampoo bottle is the same cost. Up until late last week, Governor Bob

Ferguson was saying he would not support this bill in the way the tax revenue had been allotted,

saying he wanted to see a lot more of it given back to Washingtonians through things like

a sales tax holiday and more of the revenue earmarked for specific programs rather than just

going straight to the general fund. The bill in its current form does put more back some of it

through sales tax. I think the estimates say about 30% of the revenue generated will go towards

specific programs like an expansion of the working families tax credit and funding for early childhood

education and daycare and sales tax breaks. But Ferguson says he's happy with where the bill is

now. The Republicans who fought the bill say they believe this bill is unconstitutional and that

it should go before the voters. There is an expectation that there may be a measure on the November

ballots looking to repeal this tax. So folks who are listening can look out for that and it's

expected to head to court to decide on constitutionality. All right, Sarah. So what now and what next?

Yet so the bill now heads back to the Senate for them to approve the changes made in the House

and if it's approved there it'll head to the governor's desk. By the end of this session on Thursday

though he may not sign the bill then that's just the deadline for when it's got ahead there.

State government reporter Sarah Meises Tan speaking with KUW's Angela King.

Next time on Seattle now we check in with a Seattle nurse who's competing at the Paralympics.

She does cross-country skiing and the Biathlon. Biathlon is really the hardest thing I've

ever done. It is it is very challenging to go from skiing your absolute hardest to calming your

nervous system down and trying to shoot in a precise way. Here more Thursday morning.

That's all for today from the KUW Newsroom in Seattle. Our producer is Andy Hurst.

The interview in today's episode was produced by John O'Brien.

I'm Paige Browning, Seattle now and KUW are members of the NPR Network. See you later.

Sound side brings you beyond the headlines with news and conversation rooted in the Pacific

Northwest. I'm Libby Dankman. Every week I sit down with local journalists for sound

sides front page where we give you a shortcut to understanding the latest news and cultural moments

and how they affect us here in the Puget Sound region. It's all here on Sound Side on the radio

or streaming Monday through Thursday at noon and 8 p.m. on KUW on the KUW app or wherever you get

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