HB1918 – Exempts zero-emission outdoor power equipment from the sales tax and imposes an additional 6.5% air quality tax on equipment with emissions.
Prime Sponsor – Representative Macri (D; 43rd District; Seattle) (Co-Sponsors Valdez, Berry, Ryu, Simmons, Peterson, Goodman, Ramel, Kloba, Bateman, Harris-Talley, and Pollet – Ds)
Current status – Referred to Senate Ways & Means.
Next step would be – Scheduling a hearing.
Legislative tracking page for the bill.

In the House – Passed
Had a hearing in the House Committee on State Government & Tribal Relations January 20th; replaced by a substitute and passed out of committee January 26th. Referred to Finance; had a hearing there February 17th. Replaced by a second substitute adding exceptions for government purchases of a few more kinds of equipment and allowing waivers; passed out of committee February 25th. Referred to Rules; passed by the House March 4th.

Summary –
Substitute –
The substitute removes the additional 6.5% tax on equipment with emissions other than water; requires state agencies and local governments to buy zero-emission large outdoor equipment when that’s practicable. It requires Commerce to provide technical assistance about these kinds of equipment to the government and the public instead of having it monitor compliance with the bill’s requirements for governments.  (It also exempts outdoor power equipment used for emergency response activities, in natural resource work on forestland, in agricultural settings, or in remote settings that can only be reached by water from the bill’s requirements.)

Original bill –
The bill would impose an additional air quality improvement tax of 6.5% on each retail sale of outdoor power equipment that produced emissions in use other than water. (The tax would be collected from January 1st 2022 through 2032, and apply to equipment with less than 25 horsepower.) The bill defines “outdoor power equipment” as lawn mowers, riding lawn mowers, hedge trimmers, string trimmers, brush cutters, chainsaws, pole trimmers, pole saws, log splitters, leaf blowers, leaf shredders, leaf vacuums, soil tillers, soil cultivators, augers, mulchers, edgers, wood chippers, stump grinders, pressure washers, snow blowers, tampers, compactors, and other equipment designed or marketed for use in an outdoor setting in the management of vegetation, landscaped outdoor spaces, or built spaces.)

The bill would exempt zero-emission outdoor power equipment from the sales tax, and require physical and electronic retailers to notify potential customers of that and of the 13% tax on other outdoor power equipment in specified ways. It would not allow state agencies and local governments to purchase any outdoor power equipment with emissions after 2024. The Department of Commerce would review their compliance with the requirement by December 1, 2026, and submit a report to the appropriate committees of the Legislature, including a review of the market availability, cost, and performance attributes of zero emission outdoor power equipment relative to emitting versions.

There would be a JLARC evaluation of the results, covering at least the amount of the exemption and the tax for each type of equipment; the number of taxpayers that received the exemption and the total exempted; the number of taxpayers that paid the air quality improvement tax and the total paid, the average per taxpayer of the exemption and the new tax, the net effect on state revenues of the two changes, and to the extent that it’s practical, the amount of the benefit to taxpayers in each county as a result of the exemption and the cost to them of the tax.