HB 2468 was heard by the House Finance Committee yesterday. The bill is one of three introduced this year to make changes to the workforce education investment surcharges that were enacted last year. Earlier this week I wrote about another of the bills (SB 6492) and provided a side-by-side comparison of the three.

HB 2468 would keep the surcharges in place but would change their amounts. Additionally, under current law, businesses must be “primarily engaged” in a specified sector to be subject to the surcharges. Under HB 2468, they must only have gross income apportioned to Washington from specified sectors to be subject to surcharges.

According to the fiscal note, HB 2468 would reduce revenues to the workforce education investment account (WEIA) by $1.1 million in 2019–21 and increase WEIA revenues by $109.5 million in 2021–23. This means that if HB 2468 is enacted, WEIA revenues would total $378.9 million in 2019–21 and $502.6 million in 2021–23.

Also yesterday, the Senate Ways & Means Committee reported SSB 6492. As amended, the bill would add a 1.22 percent surcharge for advanced computing businesses. An affiliated group would pay no more than $9 million a year. There is no fiscal note yet for the substitute bill, but it would bring in more revenues than the bill as introduced.

Additionally, Sen. Braun proposed an amendment to SB 6492 that would have included the WEIA in the four-year balanced budget requirement. The amendment failed, but Sen. Rolfes suggested the idea may come up again as the bill makes its way through the Legislature. We have recommended including the WEIA in the balanced budget requirement to help improve budget transparency.