The title of HB 2327 says it is “an act relating to providing a revenue stream to fund digital equity programs.” Indeed, it would provide quite a revenue stream.

HB 2327 would impose a new wireless device tax on each sale of a smart wireless device (i.e., anything capable of wireless access to the internet), if the selling price is more than $250. The tax would be $2 per device, and the $250 threshold would not be adjusted for inflation. All revenues from the tax would be deposited in a new learning device and technology account. (Similar policies were introduced in 2021 and 2023 but not enacted.)

Additionally, under the bill, 50% of all state retail sales taxes paid on the sale of smart devices (including those selling for less than $250) would have to be transferred from the general fund–state (GFS) to the learning device and technology account. (This transfer was not in the previous bills.)

The learning device and technology account could be used for K–12 education technology and the digital equity planning grant program. The digital equity planning grant program provides grants “to fund the development of a digital equity plan.”

Although HB 2327 has not been scheduled for a hearing, a fiscal note was published yesterday. The wireless device tax would increase revenues to the new account by $7.1 million in 2023–25, $34.5 million in 2025–27, and $34.9 million in 2027–29. The transfer of sales tax revenues to the new account would reduce GFS revenues by $47.8 million in 2023–25, $187.5 million in 2025–27, and $197.2 million in 2027–29.

That’s a lot of money for the new account. How much is really needed for these purposes? As I wrote about the 2021 bill, federal COVID relief money paid for a lot of new devices for schools. Further, the state Dept. of Commerce reports that for 2021–23, the state appropriated about $376 million in state and federal funds for broadband infrastructure and grants to leverage more federal funding. Meanwhile, the federal government reports that Washington has been allocated $1.228 billion in broadband equity, access, and deployment (BEAD) program funding, $1.1 million for a state digital equity planning grant, $30.0 million for the broadband infrastructure program, $98.4 million to tribes for the tribal broadband connectivity program, and $14.7 million for other broadband programs.