This session, the Legislature imposed a new tax on telephone lines. Collections will fund the statewide 988 behavioral health crisis response hotline. In legislation enacted last year, Congress made 988 “the universal telephone number within the United States for the purpose of the national suicide prevention and mental health crisis hotline system.”

E2SHB 1477 imposes a new tax on all radio access lines (including cellphones), voice over internet protocol service lines, and switched access lines (landlines).

From October 1, 2021 through Dec. 31, 2022, the tax rate will be $0.24 per line. The rate will increase to $0.40 per line on Jan. 1, 2023. Subscribers who live in Washington will pay the tax monthly. People who purchase a line in Washington will pay the tax when they buy the line (for example, when they buy prepaid services). The bill preempts cities and counties from imposing similar taxes.

Collections will be deposited in a new “statewide 988 behavioral health crisis response and suicide prevention line account.” The account may be used for routing 988 calls to crisis hotline centers or crisis call center hubs and for “personnel and the provision of acute behavioral health, crisis outreach, and crisis stabilization services.” Collections may not supplant general fund appropriations for behavioral health services or for Medicaid-covered services.

The Department of Revenue estimates that the tax will increase revenues by $54.0 million in 2021–23 and $91.8 million in 2023–25. (Like the new surcharge on recorded documents, these revenues are outside the budget outlook.)

The bill also makes 2021–23 appropriations. It appropriates $26.6 million from the new account and $914,000 from the general fund–federal. Of these appropriations, $23.0 million is for routing calls and for operating call centers.

By July 1, 2024, the Department of Health must designate crisis call center hubs, which will “provide crisis intervention services, triage, care coordination, referrals, and connections to individuals contacting the 988 crisis hotline from any jurisdiction within Washington 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Additionally, as of Jan. 1, 2023, health plans “must make next-day appointments available to enrollees experiencing urgent, symptomatic behavioral health conditions to receive covered behavioral health services.”