Legislative UpdateA new law establishes a Workforce Education Investment Accountability and Oversight Board, the Washington College Grant Program, the Washington Student Loan Refi nancing Program and a career connected learning cross-agency work group and grant program. The law imposes a 20% business and occupation (B&O) surcharge on the income from service and other activities of select businesses (covering over 40 activities); imposes a 33.33% B&O surcharge on the income from service and other activities of advanced computing businesses with revenue of more than $25 billion but less than $100 billion; and imposes a 66.66% B&O surcharge on the income from service and other activities of advanced computing businesses with revenue of more than $100 billion. Another new law imposes an additional 1.2% B&O tax on specifi ed fi nancial institutions.

A wide-ranging alternative-fueled-vehicle law extends the EV Charging Infrastructure grant program, expands eligibility to include hydrogen fueling station infrastructure, and reinstates the alternative fuel vehicle retail sales and use tax exemption for new vehicles priced at $45,000 or less and for used vehicles priced at $30,000 or less.

A new law establishes a hemp agricultural commodity program under the Washington State Department of Agriculture.

Washington State Dept. of Commerce 2001 Sixth Ave., Ste. 2600

Seattle, WA 98121

Lisa BrownCOMMERCE DIRECTOR

206-256-6100

choosewashingtonstate.com

“Being committed now to 100% clean electricity and signing a bill prohibiting fracking in Washington state, we want to be consistent to that spirit of progress. I cannot in good conscience support continued construction of a liquefi ed natural gas plant in Tacoma or a methanol production facility in Kalama.”— Gov. Jay Inslee, on May 8, 2019

Higher Ed. R&D Expenditure in $000s: 1,808,947

Number of NCRCs: 5,462 | Percent Improvement 2019–2020: 3.55%

Business Tax Climate Rank Change 2019–2020: 0

Industrial power cost per kWh: $4.87

Total Revenue as Share of Total Expenses, FY 2004-2018: 102.6%

2019 Workers’ Comp Index Rate: 1.87

GDP

10th

2018 GDP(in millions of current US$)

$511,672.4

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Graph dimensions: 86.52 px W 43.216 px HY-axis: Gotham XNarrow Bold 3 ptX-axis: Gotham XNarrow Bold 5 pt

Washington Pop. (2019): 7,608,571 Pop. growth 2019–2024: 1.31%Median household income (2019): $73,627 Median age (2019): 39Credit Rating: AA+/Stable Right-to-work state: No

Did You Know?Greater Seattle adds 60,000 new people each year, two-thirds of which are owed to net migration. The region’s total workforce now numbers 2.1 million.

Reuters named the University of Washington the No. 1 most innovative public university in the world in 2019. Total enrollment across its three campuses in Seattle, Bothell and Tacoma approached 60,000 in fall 2019.

In addition to producing 70% of the nation’s apples, Washington is also No. 1 nationally in production of hops, Concord grapes, spearmint oil and aquaculture.

According to an early 2019 report in the Spokesman-Review, with $880.5 million in new construction in 2018, Spokane grew more than any year since 2007. A new $181 million Amazon fulfi llment center will count in the area’s 2019 numbers.

Selected Corporate Facility Projects 2019 NEW/ INVESTMENTCOMPANY CITY COUNTY TYPE

EXPANDED PRODUCT

(US$ M) EMP

McCain Foods USA Othello Adams MF E Food & Beverage 300 180

Selkirk Pharma Spokane Spokane MF N Pharmaceuticals 30

Bluebird Bio Seattle King RD N Biotechnology 14

Greenpoint Technologies Bothell King HQ N Aircraft Parts 10

SVZ USA Washington Othello Adams MF E Food & Beverage 5 17

Wm. Winkler Co. Spokane Spokane MF N Concrete 2

Life Science Washington Seattle King OF N Association 2

Katerra Spokane Spokane MF N Wood Products 100

Web Industries Marysville Snohomish MF N Aircraft Parts 70

Mullen Technologies Spokane Spokane MF N Automobiles 55

DT = Data Center | MF = Manufacturing | OF = O� ce | HQ = Headquarters | RD = Research & Development | DW = Distribution/Warehouse