“Amazon Tax” bill is off the table — for now.

According to a memo issued today, Council President Lorena Gonzalez has decided that the payroll tax bill put forward by Council members Sawant and Morales does not meet the criteria for allowed Council actions under Governor Inslee’s proclamation modifying the terms of the Open Public Meetings Act (OPMA) and Public Records Act (PRA). As such, the Council may not continue deliberations on it while the Governor’s proclamation remains in effect, and next Wednesday’s Budget Committee meeting to discuss the bill has been cancelled.

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HB 2907 dies, but gets resurrected as HB 2948 (updated)

In the ongoing saga of the current state legislative session, last night was the deadline for bills to be passed out of their “house of origin.” One of the many bills that didn’t make it was HB 2907, the much-talked-about bill sponsored by Rep. Nicole Macri that would grant King County the authority to impose a payroll tax to pay for affordable housing and homeless services. For the last several days, Macri had been negotiating with a variety of stakeholders to find a compromise that could gather enough support to pass, and the clock ran out. But today, Macri introduced …

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