H-2795.1
HOUSE BILL 2470
State of Washington 68th Legislature 2024 Regular Session
By Representatives Davis, Walen, Ryu, and Taylor
Read first time 01/23/24. Referred to Committee on Local Government.
1 AN ACT Relating to creating a local sales and use tax to address
2 gender-based violence; adding a new section to chapter 82.14 RCW; and
3 creating a new section.
4 BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF WASHINGTON:
5 NEW SECTION. Sec. 1. (1) The legislature finds that the state
6 of Washington has made great strides towards expanding access to
7 civil protection orders in recent years. These statutory changes have
8 led to a significant increase in protection order filings by victims
9 of gender-based violence. In some counties, this has amounted to as
10 much as a 50 percent increase in protection order petitions. Without
11 additional resources, courts are unable to manage this substantial
12 increase in volume. The overall increase in protection orders has
13 also led to a commensurate increase in orders to surrender weapons,
14 primarily associated with domestic violence cases. Courts are
15 required by statute to hold compliance hearings related to orders to
16 surrender weapons. Such hearings are imperative to ensure that
17 firearms are in fact relinquished and survivors are safe from lethal
18 harm. However, in practice, many jurisdictions are not holding
19 weapons surrender compliance hearings, often due to resource
20 constraints.
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 1 (2) The legislature further finds that in recent years, some of
2 the community-based domestic violence and sexual assault agencies in
3 Washington state began turning away survivors for the first time in
4 their histories due to capacity constraints. Additionally, while the
5 legislature has made massive investments in wages for numerous
6 categories of frontline workers, including behavioral health and
7 long-term care workers, there have been no increases in wages and
8 benefits for frontline staff that serve victims of gender-based
9 violence. Many of these victim advocates are survivors themselves and
10 they are not paid anywhere near a living wage.
11 (3) Therefore, it is the intent of the legislature to allow
12 counties to levy a 0.1 percent sales and use tax to address gender-
13 based violence in their communities.
14 NEW SECTION. Sec. 2. A new section is added to chapter 82.14
15 RCW to read as follows:
16 (1) A county legislative authority may impose, without a
17 proposition approved by a majority of persons voting, a sales and use
18 tax in accordance with the terms of this chapter.
19 (2) The tax authorized in this section is in addition to other
20 taxes authorized by law and must be collected from those persons who
21 are taxable by the state under chapters 82.08 and 82.12 RCW upon the
22 occurrence of any taxable event within the county. The rate of tax
23 equals 0.1 percent of the selling price in the case of a sales tax or
24 value of the article used in the case of a use tax.
25 (3) The tax imposed pursuant to subsection (1) of this section
26 must be deducted from the amount of tax otherwise required to be
27 collected or paid over to the revenue under chapter 82.08 or 82.12
28 RCW. The revenue must perform the collection of such taxes on behalf
29 of the county at no cost to the county and the state treasurer must
30 distribute those taxes as available on a monthly basis to the county
31 or upon the direction of the county to its treasurer or fiscal agent,
32 paying agent, or trustee.
33 (4) Moneys collected under this section must be used to address
34 gender-based violence. Allowable uses include, but are not limited
35 to:
36 (a) Funding for superior and district courts to manage the
37 increase in civil protection order filings and weapons surrender
38 compliance work;
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 1 (b) Funding for victim advocates embedded in county clerks'
2 offices to assist petitioners with filing protection orders;
3 (c) Creation of and funding for advocacy programs embedded in
4 prosecutor's offices that provides free legal assistance to victims
5 seeking protection orders;
6 (d) Funding for community-based domestic violence and sexual
7 assault victim's services agencies;
8 (e) Funding for civil legal aid for survivors of gender-based
9 violence;
10 (f) Funding for housing for survivors of gender-based violence
11 and their children;
12 (g) Creation of and funding for the administration of firearm
13 relinquishment programs for perpetrators of gender-based violence;
14 (h) Funding for domestic violence perpetrator treatment programs;
15 (i) Creation of and funding for restorative justice programs for
16 perpetrators and victims of gender-based violence;
17 (j) Funding for victim advocates embedded in law enforcement
18 agencies and prosecutor's offices;
19 (k) Funding for domestic violence high-risk teams; and
20 (l) Gender-based violence prevention programs.
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