13th district lawmakers vote on 'millionaire tax,' data center regs and gun owner privacy

OLYMPIA — Lawmakers from the 13th Legislative District have already voted on various bills as they grapple with a $2.3 billion budget deficit and a rapidly moving short session. The bills mentioned below have either advanced their respective committees or caucuses, passing the fiscal committee cutoff date last Monday.  

Sen. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, voted no against Senate Bill 6346, also dubbed the “millionaires’ tax." As a member of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, Warnick expressed stern opposition along with other Republicans, arguing Democrats will soon lower the million-dollar threshold, becoming an income tax paid by those who are not just millionaires.  

“It's (a promise) easily made, easily broken,” Warnick said in an interview.

Warnick also voted against Senate Bill 5098, which would prohibit firearms in certain public areas such as federal and local buildings, parks, playground facilities, and fairgrounds. She expressed opposition to raising the impaired driving blood alcohol concentration limit to 0.05%, banning facial coverings on law enforcement officers, and lowering the interest rate on medical debt to 1%.  

Warnick, however, voted in favor of Senate Bill 5956 that would prohibit schools from using automated decision systems, such as artificial intelligence, as the sole or deciding factor in student discipline cases. She also supported legislation that aimed to address student use of mobile devices by directing the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction to research and recommend policies to limit student use of phones during instructional hours.  

Rep. Alex Ybarra, R-Quincy, member of the House Environment and Energy Committee, voted against House Bill 2515, which would place new energy requirements on data centers, including establishing an 80% threshold of electricity from renewable resources by 2030 and 100% by 2045.  

Ybarra, one of the biggest advocates for the state’s data center boom, argued the legislation would not align Washington closer to its Climate Commitment Act energy goals but instead would cancel out data center sales tax incentives, ultimately deterring companies from locating in the state. 

According to Ybarra, data centers brought significant economic growth to the small potato town, increasing Quincy’s assessed value to more than $6.1 billion as of 2025 and paying 57% of its property tax base. 

Ybarra also voted against House Bill 2105 in the House Labor and Workplace Standards Committee, which would increase protections for immigrant workers by requiring employers to notify workers of federal inspections related to employment eligibility. Additionally, he voted no on legislation that would declare falsely identifying as a peace or law enforcement officer as a gross misdemeanor.  

Ybarra supported a bipartisan effort to expand unemployment eligibility for those who were laid off by their employers. As well, he voted in favor of requiring state-registered apprenticeship programs to provide behavioral health and wellness training and creating a sales-and-use tax remittance program for affordable housing.  

Rep. Tom Dent, R-Moses Lake, who briefly stepped away from Olympia last Thursday following a family emergency, is now participating in House floor activity remotely. Dent has spent this session advocating for bills aiming to alleviate regulations on the state’s agricultural industry.  

He expressed stern opposition to Senate Bill 6045 and House Bill 2409 that would expand collective bargaining rights to farmworkers, arguing it would “destroy” agriculture.  

“Agriculture is a culture,” Dent said in an interview. "We look out for each other. We care about the people, but there's only so much money.”  

Dent expressed support for House Bill 2235, which would exempt firearm-related records from the Washington Public Records Act, and voted in favor of legislation that would protect patients involved in motor vehicle accidents by prohibiting ambulance services from selling or assigning debt to collection agencies until after 120 days of the initial billing statement.  

Dent joined House Republicans voting against House Bill 1574, which would expand protections for a person seeking medical assistance for someone experiencing a drug-related overdose, and House Bill 1604, which would require jails to adopt and implement procedures for conducting searches of transgender or intersex individuals.   

Legislators will continue voting late into the night as more bills will either meet their end or survive as the House or origin deadline rapidly approaches this Tuesday.