Advocacy Update - April 2025

State Legislative Update (Highlights for Commercial Real Estate):

BOMA, working with coalition partners:

1. BOMA successfully advocated against a proposed bill that would have tripled the annual property tax limit increases from 1% to 3%  - this proposal is now dead for this session.
2. Defeated consideration of adding sales tax on janitorial services.
3. Defeated consideration of adding sales tax on rents and leases.
4. Defeated a bill that would have imposed unnecessary and significant new boiler certification and licensing greater than Seattle’s requirements statewide. BOMA will work with interested parties before the next legislative session in 2026 to seek a better legislative bill.
5. BOMA supported HB 1543 which has passed the legislature that increases compliance pathways for the State’s clean buildings performance standard

Continuing proposals of concern are efforts in these final days of the session:

1. Make security services subject to the sales tax
2. Redefine self-storage as a retail activity subject to the sales tax and B & O tax.
3. B & O tax rate hikes on many services.
4. Passage of a form of residential rent control statewide will likely be passed into law. It is important to prevent future efforts to extend this to commercial real estate.

Background:
The 2025 legislative session was scheduled for 105 days to end April 27th. It is possible the legislature will go into an extra special session.

The 2025-2026 legislature consists of:
Senate - 49 seats - D30/R19
House - 98 seats - D59/R 39

Washington State’s two-year operating budget has grown to $78.5 billion dollars. The State is facing a 4-year projected budget shortfall between $12 and $16 billion dollars. 

Lawmakers have been holding hearings on Revenue Package legislation to balance the $16 billion dollar 4-year revenue shortfall in the projected budget.  

Both houses of the legislature submitted budgets that would have closed the projected gap almost entirely from new taxes and other revenue. Governor Ferguson has insisted that the shortfall be addressed with at least 30-35% in spending cuts. This has caused the majority party to seek “different’ revenue proposals.