Size of Washington's largest state tax packages, 1981-2025

What this dataset measures

Built to test the claim that the 2025 session passed the largest tax increase in Washington history. Included: every session we found that raised general-fund taxes by roughly half a billion 2025 dollars or more (1981, both 1982 special sessions, 1993, 2010, 2017, 2025), plus 2019 and 2021, which are often cited in the same debate. The 1985-91 sessions passed no large general-fund package according to the Legislative Budget Notes for those years.

Geography

Washington, United States

Unit of observation

One legislative session's tax legislation, measured in the two-year budget period (biennium) in which it was enacted

Update cadence

One-time compilation; may be revised if older revenue estimates are found

Curator

FactHub Research Team

Curated data tables

These related tables form this versioned dataset release. Each table has its own downloadable file and field definitions.

Tax packages by session

Estimated new state general-fund revenue from each session's tax legislation in the biennium it was enacted, with the general-fund revenue base for that biennium.

Unit of observation: Legislative session

View this table

packages.csv text/csv · 3.1 KB (3,146 bytes)

16 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
id	string	Row id.	—	observed
label	string	Short label used in charts.	—	observed
session	string	Legislative session(s).	—	observed
year	integer	Calendar year the package was enacted.	—	observed
biennium	string	Two-year budget period (July 1 to June 30) in which the package was enacted.	—	observed
bills	string	Main bills and what they taxed.	—	observed
fund	string	Fund definition of both the package and the revenue base.	—	observed
newRevenueMillions	number	Estimated new revenue from the session's tax legislation in the biennium of enactment, as estimated at enactment.	millions of nominal dollars	estimated
revenueBaseMillions	number	General-fund revenue for the same biennium and fund definition (collections, or latest forecast for 1993-95 and 2025-27).	millions of nominal dollars	observed
sharePct	number	New revenue as a percent of the revenue base.	percent	derived
cpiYear	integer	Year whose CPI-U average is used to convert to 2025 dollars (the enactment year).	—	derived
cpiU	number	CPI-U annual average for cpiYear.	index, 1982-84 = 100	observed
real2025Millions	number	New revenue converted to 2025 dollars.	millions of 2025 dollars	derived
partOfBienniumOnly	boolean	True when the package was enacted partway through its biennium, so the figure covers well under two years of collections.	—	observed
sourceIds	string	Semicolon-separated ids of the sources for this row.	—	observed
note	string	What is included or excluded.	—	observed

CPI-U annual averages

U.S. consumer price index (all urban consumers), annual averages computed from monthly values.

Unit of observation: Calendar year

View this table

cpi_u_annual.csv text/csv · 776 bytes

3 field definitions

Field	Type	Meaning	Units	Value type
year	integer	Calendar year.	—	observed
cpi_u_annual_avg	number	Average of the monthly CPI-U values for the year.	index, 1982-84 = 100	derived
months	integer	Number of monthly values averaged (11 for 2025).	—	observed

Supporting files

Source snapshots, manifests, quality reports, documentation, and other materials used to produce or review this release.

• build.js Transformation manifest · text/javascript · 7.2 KB (7,323 bytes)

  Node.js script that computes the share, 2025-dollar and sensitivity values from the two tables.

Saved analyses

Statements on record

Exact quotes, unaltered, with what surrounded them, the primary source, and an archived copy of it.

Sources

1. Washington State Legislature 1981 second special session revenue increase ($563 million)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. Final Legislative Report prepared by legislative staff after the November 1981 special session; includes a general-fund reconciliation table.

2. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) Spring 1982 revenue increase (alternative $326 million figure)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. 1982 Final Legislative Report, a scanned document; text read by text recognition.

3. Washington State Legislature Spring 1982 ($300 million) and June 1982 ($144.3 million) revenue increases

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. Final Legislative Report for the June 1982 special session, prepared by legislative staff; summarizes both 1982 special sessions.

4. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) General Fund-State revenue for 1981-83 ($6,892.9 million)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. 1989-91 Legislative Budget Notes by House and Senate fiscal staff; table of General Fund-State revenues by source and biennium from the March 1989 forecast.

5. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) 1993 omnibus tax package, 2ESSB 5967 ($648.7 million)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. 1993-95 Legislative Budget Notes by House and Senate fiscal staff.

6. Washington State Legislature 1993 health reform taxes, E2SSB 5304 ($251.4 million)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. Final bill report prepared by Senate staff.

7. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) General Fund-State revenue for 1993-95 (about $16,259.6 million) and the 1994 surtax cut

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. 1994 supplemental Legislative Budget Notes; the 1993-95 revenue figure is the February 1994 forecast plus 1994 legislation, not a final actual.

8. Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (archived copy) 2010 session revenue legislation ($761.0 million in 2009-11; $1,658.7 million in 2011-13)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. June 2010 revenue forecast; its table of revenue legislation passed in the 2010 session. The forecast council is the state's nonpartisan revenue forecaster.

9. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) 2017 revenue legislation ($2,046.5 million in 2017-19)

   Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

   Reliability: Government. 2017 Legislative Budget Notes by legislative fiscal staff.

10. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) 2019 revenue legislation ($349.6 million in 2019-21)

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Government. 2019 Legislative Budget Notes by legislative fiscal staff.

11. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) 2021 revenue legislation (about $414 million in 2021-23)

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Government. 2021 Legislative Budget Notes by legislative fiscal staff.

12. Washington State Legislature (fiscal.wa.gov) 2025 revenue package by bill (2025-27), and the March 2025 forecast

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Government. 2025 Legislative Budget Notes by legislative fiscal staff; lists each 2025 revenue bill's estimated effect on near-general-fund revenue.

13. Washington Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (archived copy) General-fund and near-general-fund revenue by fiscal year, 2009-11 through 2027-29

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public record of the State of Washington. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Government. September 2026 revenue forecast; history and forecast tables by fiscal year (cash basis). 2025-27 is one year actual and one year forecast.

14. Washington Research Council Four-year split of the 2025 tax bills (Table 1) and an independent ranking since 1994

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyright Washington Research Council; quoted for review. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Advocacy group. Has a stake in this finding. Business-supported fiscal research group; its 2025 report calls the package the largest since at least the early 1990s. Its Table 1 cites the state forecast council.

15. Washington Policy Center The claim being checked

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Copyright Washington Policy Center; quoted for review. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Advocacy group. Has a stake in this finding. Free-market think tank that opposed the 2025 tax bills; this is a commentary piece by its communications director.

16. Washington State Senate Republican Caucus Partisan comparison by share of the budget

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public caucus web page; quoted for review. Linked, not redistributed

    Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. The minority caucus that voted against the 2025 tax bills; the page gives no calculation.

17. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI-U), U.S. city average, not seasonally adjusted

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. Public domain (U.S. government work). Redistributed as cpi_u_annual.csv

    Reliability: Government. Monthly series CUUR0000SA0 retrieved through the BLS public API and averaged by calendar year. October 2025 is missing because of the 2025 federal funding lapse.

18. FactHub Near-general-fund revenue for 2017-19 ($46,081 million), compiled from the forecast council's history tables

    Retrieved November 3, 2026. FactHub dataset. Linked

    Reliability: Other. An earlier FactHub dataset; its revenue-by-biennium table copies the forecast council's September 2026 history table.

Limitations and reproducibility

Reproducible from cited documents: Every input figure is copied from a cited legislative or forecast document and listed in packages.csv with its source ids. build.js recomputes every derived column and saved-analysis value from packages.csv and cpi_u_annual.csv with Node.js and no other inputs.

• Package sizes are estimates made at enactment by legislative fiscal staff or the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, not audited collections.
• The basis is the biennium of enactment. The 1981, 1982 and 2010 packages were enacted partway through a biennium, so they cover 13 to 19 months of collections; the 1993, 2017, 2019, 2021 and 2025 packages cover a fuller biennium, although some 2025 taxes started in October 2025 or January 2026.
• General-fund definitions changed over time: the general fund before 2009 (old definition) excluded the Health Services Account, and the near general fund (NGF-O) used from 2011 adds the education legacy and other outlook accounts. Each row says which definition it uses.
• Transportation taxes (such as the 2025 gas and diesel tax increase in ESSB 5801) and local taxes are excluded for every year.
• Figures for 1981-1983 come from scanned legislative reports read by text recognition; two reports give $300 million and $326 million for the spring 1982 session.
• The spring 1983 sales tax increase (SB 3258) and the 1983-85 taxes (SB 3909) have no dollar estimate in the documents we could read, so the 1981-83 total is a floor.
• Inflation adjustment uses the national consumer price index for the year each package was enacted. The 2025 average covers 11 months because October 2025 was not collected.