ENGROSSED SUBSTITUTE SENATE BILL 5794
State of Washington
69th Legislature
2025 Regular Session
By Senate Ways & Means (originally sponsored by Senators Salomon, Lovelett, Alvarado, Bateman, Dhingra, Frame, Hasegawa, Nobles, Ramos, Riccelli, Trudeau, and Wellman)
READ FIRST TIME 04/19/25.
AN ACT Relating to improving the administration of tax preferences by adopting recommendations from the tax preference performance review process, eliminating obsolete tax preferences, clarifying legislative intent, and addressing changes in constitutional law; amending RCW 82.04.260 , 82.04.290 , 48.14.0201 , 82.04.405 , 82.04.29004 , 82.04.280 , 82.04.390 , 82.04.460 , and 82.04.460 ; reenacting and amending RCW 82.04.260 ; adding a new section to chapter 82.04 RCW; creating new sections; repealing RCW 82.04.062 , 82.16.0497 , 82.04.44525 , 82.04.272 , 82.04.315 , 82.04.4292 , 82.04.29005 , and 82.04.434 ; providing effective dates; and providing expiration dates.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that, according to the most recent tax exemption study published by the department of revenue, there are currently 786 tax exemptions for the major state and local tax sources in Washington. The exemptions result in nearly $200,000,000,000 of taxpayer savings for the current biennium. The legislature acknowledges that certain tax preferences, such as the sales and use tax exemption for food and the working families tax credit, are intended to rebalance Washington's tax code for working people. However, the legislature further acknowledges that many existing tax preferences are the result of private interests securing preferential tax treatment.
(2) For that reason, the legislature enacted robust tax preference performance measures to create greater tax preference transparency and accountability and provide a framework for legislators to make informed decisions on the most efficient use of taxpayer dollars. To ensure tax exemptions meet certain public policy objectives, the joint legislative audit and review committee, a nonpartisan legislative agency, routinely evaluates tax preferences based on specific criteria provided in law and reports that information to the legislature each year. The reports provide accurate, comprehensive, unbiased data that policymakers may use to determine if a tax preference should be continued, modified, or repealed. Additionally, the citizen commission for performance measurement of tax preferences is responsible for selecting which tax preferences are reviewed each year and provides comment on the legislative auditor's reports. Both entities provide recommendations to the legislature on the effectiveness of a tax preference in meeting certain performance measures.