WashCOG urges support for local journalism bill
April 15, 2025 — In these last two weeks of the legislative session, attention naturally focuses on passing a budget. WashCOG is asking transparency advocates this week to please call members of the Senate Ways & Means Committee to ask that they pass SB 5400, “Supporting Local News Journalism.” The committee chair and the Senate majority leader have said it’s still possible to pass this bill and see the provisions inserted into the Senate’s proposed budget.
We’re providing the senators’ phone numbers below. Here’s a summary of the legislation and why it is needed:
Journalism is an essential civic good that nourishes our democracy. It provides the information citizens need to determine how to vote in elections and keeps them informed on an ongoing basis about important issues.
That civic good is in danger. We all benefited from another civic good, the internet. But that technological change broke the advertising business model that supported news organizations.
SB 5400 calls for a 1.22% increase in the business and occupational taxes paid by large and thriving social media platforms such as Facebook, and search sites such as Google.
The proceeds would be distributed to news organizations covering local public affairs in Washington, with a subsidy of about $13,000 to $15,000 per journalist per year. This would help prevent the growing number of so-called news deserts where reporting on local civic affairs has declined severely or ceased altogether.
A modest fee on companies that now reap profits through internet advertising is a reasonable accommodation, with support in our history dating to the Post Office Act of 1792, in which Congress granted a generous subsidy on mailing newspapers to make sure citizens stayed informed. Our nation’s founders knew journalism was important and needed to be subsidized.
If you’d like to know more, here is the latest update on the legislation by Brier Dudley, The Seattle Times’ Free Press editor, who has followed the issue closely. (Oregon legislators are considering a similar measure.)
Below is a list of Senate Ways & Means Committee members, with leadership at the top of the list. The number of calls received is important. At this late hour, with limited space on the Legislature’s agenda, every call counts.
If any of these senators represents you, make sure to call that legislator and let them know you are one of their constituents. (Find out who your senator is here.)
June Robinson 360-786-7674 (Ways & Means Chair)
Jamie Pedersen 360-786-7628 (Senate Majority Leader)
Derek Stanford 360-786-7600
Yasmin Trudeau 360-786-7652
Noel Frame 360-786-7670
Chris Gildon 360-786-7648
Nikki Torres 360-786-7684
Mark Schoesler 360-786-7620
Perry Dozier 360-786-7630
Matt Boehnke 360-786-7614
John Braun 360-786-7638
Annette Cleveland 360-786-7696
Steve Conway 360-786-7656
Manka Dhingra 360-786-7672
Drew Hansen 360-786-7644
Bob Hasegawa 360-786-7616
Claudie Kauffman 360-786-7692
Ron Muzzall 360-786-7618
Marcus Riccelli 360-786-7604
Rebecca Saldaña 360-786-7688
Keith Wagoner 360-786-7676
Judy Warnick 360-786-7624
Lisa Wellman 360-786-7641
Claire Wilson 360-786-7658
Thank you for your support of government transparency, a vital factor in a healthy democracy.
