Washington Senate bill would tax big tech to help save local journalism—here’s how

Local journalism, especially in rural areas, has been on life support for years, and Washington lawmakers think they’ve found a way to give it a much-needed boost—by making big tech help foot the bill.

Senate Bill 5400 will have a public hearing in front of the Senate Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. It is working its way through the state legislature. The bill aims to tax large social media platforms and search engines to contribute to a funding pool supporting newsrooms across the state.

The idea is simple: tech giants like Google and Facebook make tons of money off the content produced by news organizations, so why not have them chip in to keep journalism alive.

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Why helping local journalism matters

If you’ve noticed fewer local stories about city council meetings, school board decisions, or what’s happening at your local courthouse, you’re not imagining things. Newspapers and broadcasters across the country have been shrinking or shutting down altogether, leaving communities without reliable sources of information.

Senator Marko Liias (D-Mukilteo), the bill’s sponsor, described his own experience as a local journalist during the bill’s initial public hearing on January 30. He recalled showing up with a “spiral bound notebook and that pen” at public meetings with the intent to ensure accountability. Liias pointed out that while new digital models are emerging, overall coverage is declining due to shifting business models.

“Journalism plays a crucial role in keeping people informed and holding power to account,” Liias said. “With traditional funding models drying up, we need to find new ways to support local news. This bill makes sure that the platforms profiting from journalism contribute to its survival.”

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How it would work

If passed, SB 5400 would create the Washington Local News Sustainability Program, a grant system designed to help local news organizations hire more journalists. The money for this program would come from a 1.22% tax on big social media platforms and search engines that earn at least $5 million a year in Washington. The most any company would pay is $6 million per year.

The fiscal note attached to the bill estimates the added tax would raise $24 million in 2025-27 and an additional $102 million between 2028-2031. It would cost the state nearly $6 million over six years to implement the program.

That money would then go into a Local Journalism Investment Account, which would fund grants for qualifying news outlets. To be eligible, a newsroom would need to:

• Employ at least three full-time journalists (though smaller organizations with two journalists could still qualify in some cases).
• Be a newspaper, online publication, or broadcast station that covers local or regional news.
• Have a system in place for fact-checking and corrections to ensure journalistic integrity.

The grants would be based on the number of journalists employed—so the more reporters a newsroom hires, the more funding they get.

Who’s on board?

Not surprisingly, journalists and media organizations love this idea.

Theresa Whipple, CEO of My Neighborhood News Network, described the ongoing challenge of funding local reporting, explaining that the bill “would provide a financial lifeline for small organizations like ours.”

Ben Campbell, publisher of The Columbian, painted a stark picture of newsroom cuts, noting that staffing levels at his paper had declined by nearly 50% over the past two decades due to shrinking ad revenue and rising costs.

Advocates argue that big tech companies benefit from journalism but don’t actually contribute to its survival. News stories are constantly shared and searched for on these platforms, yet most of the ad revenue goes to tech companies, not the outlets that produce the news.

“Google and Facebook make billions while newspapers are struggling to survive,” Campbell said. “It’s only fair that they give something back.”

Carl Zapora of My Neighborhood News Network highlighted the importance of local news, describing how every morning, his publication provides a “summary of what happened yesterday, including a city council meeting that ends at 9:30 at night—at 5 a.m. the next morning, the entire summary of that meeting is there.”

Who’s against it?

Not everyone is thrilled about the proposal, particularly tech industry groups and some business leaders. Opponents take issue with the funding mechanism, arguing that the surcharge in question was originally designed to support higher education.

Emily Whitman, representing the Association of Washington Business, contended that the bill “would divert $20 million in funds away from low and middle-income Washington students seeking post-secondary education.” Others echoed this concern, emphasizing that higher education funding is already stretched thin.

Some argue that the tax unfairly singles out social media companies and search engines, even though the decline of local news is a much bigger issue. Others worry that this kind of tax could drive businesses away from Washington or lead to unintended consequences.

If the bill gets the green light from both the House and Senate, the tax would take effect on April 1, 2026, with grant funding rolling out shortly after.

Matt Markovich is the KIRO Newsradio political analyst. Follow him on X.

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