B&O tax break for newspapers passes Senate

Amendments alter HB 1533; journalism fellowship proposed

Washington State newspapers will not pay any Business and Occupation tax for the next 10 years under a bill sailing toward approval in the state Legislature.

“The Business and Occupations Tax rate for newspapers will be 0% if this passes and is signed into law,” said Rowland Thompson, Executive Director of Allied Daily Newspapers of Washington.

Senate Bill 5199 was proposed by state Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah, at the behest of Washington State Attorney General Bob Ferguson. It was approved by the Senate April 3 with only one senator voting no.

“I know we all agree that local journalism plays a critical and unique role in the fabric of our society. It provides jobs in every county of our state. It also serves an important function in protecting our democracy,” Ferguson said at a recent hearing.

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HB 1533

Another piece of legislation watched closely by open government advocates is HB 1533. It was presented as a way to help shield victims of harassment and domestic violence, but it did this by allowing state employees to file an affidavit claiming they could be harassed and have their name, job title and other information kept secret. The bill was amended significantly, thanks to Thompson and Attorney Kathy George, a board member of the Washington Coalition for Open Government.

The amended version allows the news media to bypass the exemption, so wrongdoers can still be investigated and exposed.

It also requires agency directors to confirm that the employee invoking the exemption has identified the allegedly threatening person

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Newspaper contest site is open

Our Better Newspaper Contest site opened on April 1 and the deadline for regular entries is May 1. So, if you haven’t started entering yet, you are way behind the curve. The good news is tourism guides published in 2023 can be entered up to June 1.

If you got your rules early, you might check the General Excellence dates you have. They were inititally a little wonky but correct now on wnpa.com.

For General Excellence, you should enter editions from the weeks starting April 24 and Aug. 14, 2022. The third edition can be from any time within the contest period.

There is a lot that is new in this year’s contest.

We’ve added some fun new advertising categories: Ads featuring animals, romantic ads, ads celebrating where you live & arts and entertainment ads. And for those people who labor over the classified pages, there’s a way you can enter this year, too. Check out the rules for entering your classified pages. Obituary pages also get their own category this year.

For those of you who judge entries for Montana this year, we will apply your judging credits and let you know the final bill.

The contest rules are at wnpa.com. Just click on the homepage tile and that will take to the rules page, where you can download the appropriate rules.

We especially urge you to enter a community service project you worked on in the last year. We are interested in projects that made a real and measurable impact in your community.

The awards will be presented Oct. 7 at our annual convention, held this year in Kennewick, WA.

We had a great crowd last year with our first post pandemic meeting, and it was a real treat to see everyone again.

We are looking forward to celebrating your best work!