Millionaire Tax, immigrant work protections, voter privacy bills and more advance in WA legislative session
Publish Date: 2026-02-27 16:57:00
Source Domain: www.rangemedia.co
With the Washington State legislative session wrapping up March 12, here’s a look at a few bills that tackle a proposed tax on the rich, home insurance and wildfire risk, voter suppression and privacy, protections for immigrant workers and keeping energy costs low in Spokane.
You can sign in for or against or send a message to a legislator on any of these bills through each bill’s summary page.
HB 2416
Exempting Spokane’s waste-to-energy facility from state climate act
This one’s specific to us, Spokane. Sponsored primarily by the Spokane delegation to the state legislature, Natasha Hill and Timm Ormsby, this bill would make it so the facility that burns Spokane trash to generate energy would not have to buy carbon credits to offset its carbon footprint like a normal landfill. The rationale behind this is three-fold: 1) the Spokane Waste to Energy Plant is not a landfill but an energy source. 2) it would impose an unfair burden on energy rate-payers in Eastern Washington. 3.) The other option instead of the WTE plant is basically to truck garbage out of the city, which is not exactly environmentally friendly. The facility is the only one of its kind in Washington and one of only a few across the nation. An assessment by the state Department of Ecology found the plant provides a net reduction in greenhouse gases when compared against other waste disposal centers.
The bill has cleared the House of Representatives and is now in committee in the Senate.
HB 2105
Providing protections for immigrant workers
This proposed legislation would require employers to notify workers within 72 hours about a federal agency’s request to inspect I-9 forms, which include an employee’s immigration status, and other related employee records.
The notice would need to be available in English and the five other most commonly used languages in the state.
The proposed legislation would also require employers to notify affected workers within 72 hours of receiving…
