Today's headlines:
- Democratic and Republican policymakers in Washington are praising the Supreme Court's decision to strike down some of the president's tariffs.
- House and Senate Democrats in Olympia have released their proposed budgets. Both rely on cuts, though spending would still go up.
- Proposed kratom regulations at the state level have all died in committee. That makes it much more likely that Spokane City Council will introduce a local kratom ban tonight after weeks of deferral.
- Washington's Employment Security Department has figured out how to cut unemployment checks faster while making its own employees happier, too.
- Some Central Washington farmworkers got a settlement for wrongful termination after being replaced by foreign workers. The Trump administration's wage cuts for those foreign workers might make those firings more common.
Plus, Washington's most recent election brought a few more examples where school district bond issues failed, despite receiving majority support. SPR's Doug Nadvornick talks to the co-president of Washington Investing in Schools and Education to hear why they are advocating to lower the 60% supermajority requirement for bonds.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Amy Radil, Owen Henderson, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick and Monica Carrillo-Casas.
Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
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TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Monday, February 23, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington policymakers on both sides of the aisle are praising the U-S Supreme Court’s ruling striking down many of the Trump administration’s tariffs.
Plus, Democrats in Olympia put out their budget proposals yesterday. The spending plans would tap Washington’s rainy day funds.
And should it take 60% percent approval from voters to pass a school bond in Washington? We’ll hear from a group that’s working to convince the legislature to lower the threshold to 50%-plus-one.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
[FADE OUT THEME]
A bipartisan group of Washington policymakers is hailing the U-S Supreme Court decision striking down some of President Trump’s sweeping tariffs.
Central Washington Republican congressman Dan Newhouse said the decision <quote> “restores balance between the legislative and executive branches.”
State GOP party chair Jim Walsh says the court’s decision is a “rational” ruling that Trump should apply tariffs more selectively.
JIM WALSH: “I think in the long run what we want to see is, we want a trade policy in which the United States is not the sucker anymore. In which the United States acts appropriately when trading partners tariff and tax us.”
OH: Democrats have more emphatically criticized the Trump administration.
Governor Bob Ferguson called the tariffs “harmful and illegal” in a statement, while U-S Senator Patty Murray wrote <quote> “good riddance” in a social media post.
Trump has since levied new global tariffs under a different statute.
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Washington Democratic budget writers say the state should tap into its rainy day funds and slash spending on child care for low-income families to balance spending for next year.
House and Senate Democrats released their budget proposals yesterday. Just 17 days remain in the legislative session.
Both plans largely rely on spending cuts to balance the budget, though overall spending still goes up under each proposal.
Democrats say that’s because costs are rising from things like lawsuits and inflation.
Republicans have already lambasted the ideas, with the lead House GOP budget writer saying his colleagues have a “spending addiction.”
Neither plan fully incorporates Governor Bob Ferguson’s proposal to use carbon auction revenue for low- and middle-income household tax rebates.
Both proposals are set for committee hearings this afternoon and could see floor votes as soon as Friday and Saturday.
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Now that proposed statewide regulations on kratom have died in the legislature, the city of Spokane is more likely to move on its proposed citywide ban. SPR’s Eliza Billingham reports.
ELIZA BILLINGHAM: Spokane City Council has been talking about a citywide kratom ban for months. But it has delayed officially introducing the ban.
Supporters of the ban say the under-researched substance is hurting youth. Opponents say kratom offers impressive harm reduction benefits, especially for people addicted to opioids, and shouldn’t be completely prohibited.
At the end of January, Councilmember Zack Zappone said the city should wait to see what happened to a kratom-related bill at the state level before they voted on a local ban.
ZACK ZAPPONE: “If it’s dead, we can pass it. If it is still moving, we could defer it again.”
EB: There were actually three state bills that proposed various regulations on kratom, including a 21-year age limit, a 95% tax, and licensing requirements. None moved past committee.
That makes it much more likely that Spokane’s council will introduce a citywide ban at tonight’s meeting, and vote on it next week.
I’m Eliza Billingham, reporting.
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OH: Demand for unemployment benefits in Washington increased during the last quarter of 2025.
Officials say that’s common as seasonal workers leave their jobs.
As SPR’s Doug Nadvornick reports, those officials have devised a faster way to pay the people who rely on those benefits.
DOUG NADVORNICK: J.R. Richards from the Employment Security Department says her agency rarely hires new workers to handle the increased number of claims.
Instead, it typically asks its employees to work overtime.
She says those employees suggested the agency try something new: What if we turn off our phones for a few hours on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons and use that time to focus on plowing through its pile of applications?
J.R. RICHARDS: “I've got great data folk that did some modeling, and they came back and said, ‘this actually might work.’ We could actually potentially answer more calls, pay customers faster, and get through more of what we call our non-phone work that allows us to process claims.”
DN: So the department tried it. Richards says workers were happier because they could focus on one task for a few hours without phones interrupting them. The customers were happier because they got paid faster.
She says the Employment Security Department will continue reducing the phone hours for its unemployment benefits office through the end of June.
I’m Doug Nadvornick reporting.
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OH: Eight farmworkers in Yakima County have reached a settlement in a lawsuit filed last year over wrongful termination in 2023.
Northwest Justice Project attorney David Morales says Cornerstone Ranches in Toppenish has paid the plaintiffs 22 thousand dollars in compensation.
He says the farmworkers were fired and replaced by workers with H-2A visas.
That program lets employers bring foreign workers for seasonal agricultural jobs when there’s a shortage of domestic workers.
DAVID MORALES: “Unfortunately, we do see it happening all the time, but it should be illegal. It is illegal, and in this case, we had brave clients who were willing to be part of a lawsuit against it.”
OH: Morales says Cornerstone never gave a clear answer as to why the eight farmworkers were fired.
He says the Trump administration’s recent wage cuts for H-2A workers could make cases like this more common.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
This month’s election in Washington brought a few more examples where school district bond issues failed, despite receiving majority support.
East Valley School District was one of those.
A group called Washington Investing in Schools and Education, or WISE, is working to convince the legislature to lower the threshold for bond issues from a 60-percent supermajority to 50-percent-plus-one.
That’s also the requirement for operations and capital levies.
SPR’s Doug Nadvornick spoke with WISE co-president, Jared Kink.
JARED KINK: If we look at this last round of elections, nearly every levy is passing in the state. Communities really, local communities really support their schools.
But one area that makes it really difficult to support students and communities is building new schools. And the state legislature does very little to support building of schools and maintaining of schools. The districts have to rely on local dollars to do so.
DN: Kink says he doesn’t agree with the argument that because bond issues should come with a higher voter threshold because it means borrowing money and putting districts in debt.
JK: I think the rules should be the same for everything. Everything should be a simple majority in America. That's a democratic principle. And I think you can get into the math of it. A lot of school districts are moving away from bonds and going to capital levies, which only need 50%. And if you do a capital levy, in the long run, those actually cost more than the bond, and it actually takes longer to accumulate the money to build.
DN: Are your views on this influenced by something in your own life?
JK: Yeah, we had a couple rounds in the Everett School District where we were not able to pass a bond. We'd be in the high 50s, but just couldn't get that 60%.
Would our school district move to the capital levy approach? We didn't have a choice, really, because we had schools that were very old and needed replacing. Or we had a lot of growth in one area of our district, just a massive amount of building and we couldn't keep up with how fast houses are built. And so, we have a tremendous number of portables, and that's not the best learning environment. So, yes, it very much came out of a dire need in our school district.
DN: Similar proposals have stalled over the past few years in the legislature. Do you think you’re close to changing their minds?
JK: We think so. And I think a lot of legislators in local school districts that are in the 50 plus percent, they're the ones that need to make the change. I think we have a lot of legislators going, yes, why can't I get new schools in my district? And they're passing at 50%. They're like, we need to make a change.
We need to go down to simple majority. At the end of the day, this impacts kids. This impacts communities. And we're seeing a swing towards, we got to make this change. We were only a handful of votes short last session.
DN: It’s unlikely that either of the bills in Olympia now are going to be moved this year, WISE is looking toward next year and it’s envisioning a change in the state constitution. That means getting the legislature’s approval and then going to the ballot.
JK: At some point this is going to have to go to a vote of the people, which is interesting. We only need 50% of the vote of the people to change it. So, we need a long runway. So, we're really looking at, we want to get this issue out there. We don't want it off the radar. The next legislative session, we want to get this passed and then take it to the people.
DN: Kink says he and his group anticipate a two-or-three-year campaign to convince voters and legislators that simple majority bond issues are the way to go.
JK: What we can't lose sight of with this change in the law is that every student in the state deserves a safe learning environment that's going to help them be successful for the future. And when students are going to schools that are cold, they've got poor HVAC systems, and we put so much pressure on the system for results, those kids have to be in a place where they can learn to the best of their abilities. And we can see greater success when they leave. So I don't ever want to lose sight of that.
DN: Jared Kink is the co-president of WISE, Washington Investing in Schools and Education.
OH: That was Doug Nadvornick reporting.
[SHORT MUSIC BED]
SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Amy Radil, Eliza Billingham, Doug Nadvornick, Monica Carrillo-Casas and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also the host and producer. Eliza Billingham provides digital support.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
