2026 WFSE Legislative Victories

A year after we prevented attacks on our healthcare and compensation during the largest budget shortfall in state history, we made history again.

By passing the Millionaires Tax, we took the most significant step in state history to balance Washington State’s upside-down tax code. 

Jump to our 2026 Legislative Wins

Bargaining kicks off soon. Get involved in winning a strong union contract here.

Why We Need the Millionaires Tax 

The Structural Budget Deficit, Explained

In Washington state, our tax code predictably delivers budget shortfalls because it doesn't take in enough revenue to keep up with the cost of providing basic services. 

It's also the second-most unfair system in the country, with the rich paying about three times less of their income in taxes than working families.

50% of our budget depends on the sales tax. When there are economic downturns or economic disruptions like tariffs and wars, costs increase, spending slows, and the budget takes a dive. 

As income inequality widens and where people spend their money evolves, our state takes in less and less revenue even as personal wealth explodes and more Washingtonians need services. 

The end result is cuts to our members' jobs, unmet needs for Washingtonians, and recurring attacks on public workers pay and benefits.

Public workers doing more with less, visualized

The state budget is smaller than it was 30 years ago.

The state operating budget is actually smaller today than it was 30 years ago, when adjusted for inflation and economic growth. That's what our members mean when they say doing more with less.

There are also fewer state employees per 1,000 Washingtonians than there were 23 years ago.

Every one of our members knows how much better their work could be done with more staff and resources.

With the Millionaires Tax, we are finally beginning to tax the areas of the economy that are growing, like personal wealth of the super-rich.

2026 Legislative Victories

This year during a short legislative session, WFSE members attended 216 lobby shifts with their elected officials, a record for our union. We also 64 member lobbyists who took part in our member lobbying program for the first time!

Our members proved, yet again, that no workforce has more at stake in the decisions made by elected officials than public employees. 

The Legislature has control over our wages, benefits, and pensions. They adopt a state budget that determines the funding level for the services we provide. They consider countless bills every year that can have an impact on everything from our working conditions to our job security. 

As individuals we are powerless, but through our union we have a voice. 

Here's what we accomplished together:

• Passed SB 6346/HB 2724 (Pedersen/Fitzgibbon) - Establishing a tax on millionaires to help fix the second-most unfair tax code in the nation (behind only Florida.)

• Passed SB 5944/HB 2190 (Cortes/Cortes) - Gives Interpreters United/ WFSE Local 1671 members the right to bargain over compensation for missed or canceled appointments regardless of which agency they are interpreting for. 

• Killed Section 602(44) of the House Operating Budget that sought a recommendation by November 1 to close at least one community or technical college (CTC). The final budget still seeks information about redundancy in our CTCs based on region, so we need to remain vigilant. 

• Passed HB 2411 (Salahuddin) - Allows state employees to use shared leave if they or a family member are victims of a hate crime or an immigration enforcement action. 

• Passed SB 6170 (King) - Raises the bid limit threshold for WSDOT highway maintenance work from $60K to $100K, from $100K to $160K in emergency circumstances, and indexes the emergency limit to inflation. · This long-needed change will protect our members' jobs and ensure more work is performed by skilled, union-represented maintenance crews.

• Passed HB 2218/SB 5847 (Ortiz-Self/Saldaña) - Authorizes hiring additional Labor & Industries claims managers to meet the recommended caseload of 141 and expands access to medical care in the workers’ compensation system.

• Passed HB 2249 (Salahuddin) - Removes the civil service exemption preventing the WATech Office of Cybersecurity from unionizing.
   
• Passed HB 2309 (Leavitt) - Adds postgraduate degrees to last year’s law eliminating unnecessary degree requirements in state government.
   
• Prevented a dangerous precedent of eroding collective bargaining rights to fill a budget deficit, when SB 6353 (Robinson) threatened to roll back rights for SEIU 925 childcare providers.

Protecting Public Workers' Pensions

HB 2124/SB 5835 (Couture/Conway) - Increases the minimum monthly pension that the Department of Retirement Systems may convert to a lump sum from $50 to $250 and then increased annually.

HB 2179/SB 5905 (Abell/Short) - Clarifies in law that port workers who pay into a federal railroad retirement plan are not members of state-run pension plans, which aligns with current practice by ports. 

SB 5834/HB 2125 (Conway/Couture) - Permanently expands an allowance to use interest earned from retirement account trust funds to now include fraud prevention.

SB 5862 (Dozier) - Provides a one-time COLA for PRS 1 and TRS 1 retirees. 

HB 2034 (Ormsby) - Amends the LEOFF Pension Plan 1 to allow for excess funds to be utilized in the state budget, maintaining 110% of the actuarial value as protected for benefits.

Looking for More?

WFSE lobbyists are combing through the thousands of pages of the operating budget looking for impacts to WFSE members. 

A final report will be shared here soon.

What's Next? Bargaining Our Union Contracts

We did exactly what we needed to this session to safeguard the work Washingtonians depend on and counteract the federal cuts that will take $4 billion from our state budget beginning in 2027.

But the revenue from the Millionaires Tax won’t arrive until 2029, and we’ll have to fend off court challenges and an initiative this November run by the super-rich who want to keep Washington state a tax haven. 

Most of our members enter contract negotiations this spring. 

Click here to see all the work we’ve done to get to this point, and how to get involved.