Engrossed Second Substitute Senate Bill 6027, passed by the Legislature in March 2026, amends RCW 82.14.530 and RCW 82.14.540 and also includes amendments or reenactments to other sections (RCW 84.36.043 and RCW 36.22.250) though full text for those latter changes is not included in the provided extracts. The bill authorizes counties or cities to impose a local sales and use tax (subject to a 0.1 percent cap under RCW 82.14.530) either by voter proposition or without one, defines participating and nonparticipating jurisdictions, and sets timing and rate limits tied to dates beginning July 28, 2019 and the 12-month period following that date. The bill imposes detailed spending and procedural rules for revenues: at least 60 percent of money collected under the section must be used for specified affordable housing and related behavioral health facility purposes serving persons at or below 60 percent of county median income (with listed eligible population groups); the remainder must be used for behavioral health programs, housing operations or rental assistance. It requires local consultation with cities before siting facilities, a 15 percent local preference opportunity for units in acquired facilities (with a HUD continuum-of-care funding safeguard), allows counties and cities to issue bonds and pledge up to 50 percent of revenues for repayment, limits use of funds to offset state/federal reductions and limits supplanting existing local funds to 10 percent, and requires annual reporting to the Department of Commerce with rules for report content. The tax must be authorized by local resolution and ordinance within specified deadlines tied to July 28, 2019 and the tax expires 20 years after first imposition. The bill also creates administrative and fiscal procedures: the Department of Revenue must collect the tax on behalf of jurisdictions at no cost and calculate maximum annual distributions using state fiscal year 2019 taxable sales (with excess receipts remitted to the state treasurer); administrative costs for local jurisdictions are capped at 10 percent of annual distributions; qualifying local tax definitions and deadlines are specified; a $183 per-instrument county recording surcharge and its percentage distributions among county retention and specific state accounts are established in RCW 36.22.250 as amended; and the Department of Commerce’s use of certain accounts is governed (generally up to 10 percent for administration and at least 90 percent for grants, grant administrative minimums, recordkeeping rules, and a limited property tax exemption for nonprofit recovery residences through 2033). Some provisions and sentence fragments in the provided extracts are cut off or appear truncated, so certain specific rate language and the full text of the amendments to RCW 84.36.043 and portions of RCW 36.22.250 are unclear from the material provided.

If enacted, local counties and cities would have clearer authority to raise a small, dedicated sales and use tax to generate ongoing revenue for affordable housing, supportive services, behavioral health programs, and rental assistance, and they could pledge a portion of that revenue to repay bonds. That means local governments most affected gain a new, restricted funding stream and new reporting and consultation duties (including Department of Commerce annual reporting and Department of Revenue collection at no charge), while residents and purchasers in those jurisdictions would likely see a modest sales-tax increase and county recording customers would face a $183 surcharge per recorded instrument that funds state housing accounts. The practical trade-offs: counties and cities get new resources and bond capacity but must follow spending rules (at least 60% for low-income housing targeting listed groups, limits on administrative use and supplanting, reporting, and timing/eligibility conditions), larger counties face additional requirements to spend within sizable cities, and nonprofits operating emergency, transitional, or recovery housing may gain a temporary property tax exemption through 2033. Some important details about exact rate calculations, certain timing provisions, and portions of RCW 82.14.540 are missing from the provided text, so the precise tax rates and some operational rules remain unclear.