Today's headlines:
- Republicans sue over WA's new, so-called "millionaires' tax."
- Ferguson signs bill restricting use of ALPRs like Flock cameras in WA.
- ID looks to track immigration statuses for all arrested over objections of law enforcement.
- A bill to impose civil penalties for school and medical staff who don't tell parents a child wants to socially transition is headed to Gov. Little.
- WA aims to modernize the state’s electrical grid, creating a transmission authority to connect more renewable energy.
- Cannabis use could be degrading your memory—slightly, per WSU research.
And, as SPR's Murrow News Fellow and rural reporter Monica Carrillo-Casas tells us, the seven libraries in Stevens County are a vital resource for many homeschooling families and rural residents. But library district officials say they’ll have to cut down on services and their already limited hours without a boost to their property tax levy in this April’s special election.
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SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, Owen Henderson, James Dawson, Doug Nadvornick, Steve Jackson and Monica Carrillo-Casas.
Owen Henderson hosts and produces the show.
TRANSCRIPT
[THEME MUSIC]
OWEN HENDERSON: From Spokane Public Radio, it’s SPR News Today.
I’m Owen Henderson. It’s Tuesday, March 31, 2026.
On today’s show, Washington officially has a new income tax for the state’s top earners. But Republicans are already mounting legal challenges to the so-called “millionaires’ tax.”
And a bill to penalize school, daycare and medical staff in Idaho who don’t notify parents if a child asks to socially transition to a different gender is now on Gov. Brad Little’s desk.
Plus, the seven libraries in Stevens County are a vital resource for many homeschooling families and rural residents. But library district officials say they’ll have to cut down on services and their already limited hours without a boost to their property tax levy in this April’s special election.
Those stories and more, coming up on SPR News Today.
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Washington state Republicans are mounting challenges to a historic income tax on high earners.
State Government Reporter Sarah Mizes-Tan has more.
SARAH MIZES-TAN: A conservative group called Let’s Go Washington is gathering signatures to repeal the so-called “millionaires’ tax.” If successful that measure could appear on voters’ ballots.
Republicans are also preparing to file courtroom challenges against the tax.
JIM WALSH: "We believe it’s cynically packaged as a tax on millionaires when it’s really, mechanically if you read the thing, it is structured to be a state income tax on everybody."
SMT: That’s Rep. Jim Walsh, a vocal critic of the new tax. He worries it could easily be expanded to other income brackets in the future. He’s involved in lawsuit efforts against the measure and says it violates the state’s constitution.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the tax into law yesterday. It would apply only to household incomes over a million dollars.
He said challenges to the tax are part of the Democratic process.
In Olympia, I’m Sarah Mizes-Tan.
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OH: Washington is reigning in the use of automated license plate readers.
Under a law signed yesterday, data from readers can’t be shared outside of court proceedings and must be deleted after 3 weeks, unless it’s needed for police evidence.
The law also prohibits the readers’ use near schools, courts, food banks, places of worship, or protected health care or immigration facilities.
The measure got bipartisan approval in the state legislature, though some Democrats say they hope this is just the beginning of regulations on the technology.
The law came in part as a response to a report that federal immigration officers have accessed license plate reader databases of local police in Washington—both with and without express permission.
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A bill forcing local law enforcement to verify the immigration status and nationality of all arrested suspects is heading to the Idaho Senate floor.
James Dawson reports from Boise.
JAMES DAWSON: The proposal from Senate Pro Tem Kelly Anthon would add these further responsibilities to the workload of local police and sheriffs offices.
Canyon County Sheriff Kieran Donahue was among several law enforcement officials who testified against the measure.
DONAHUE: “This puts us in a precarious situation where we’re doing the job of someone else – a federal agent – and it’s putting our law enforcement officers at risk of litigation and liability, which puts our cities and our counties in that same liability.”
JD: Opponents also worry the bill’s language is too broad and could require them to verify someone’s immigration status while simply detaining them, like a traffic stop.
Anthon says these concerns are false.
ANTHON: “None of that’s true. None of it. That’s not what the bill says. [You have] to read the bill.”
JD: The proposal easily cleared a Senate committee and is heading to the floor for further debate.
James Dawson, Boise State Public Radio News.
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OH: Idaho school staff and medical providers will likely soon need to tell parents within 72 hours if a child asks for help socially transitioning to a different gender.
That would include the child asking to go by a different name or changing their pronouns.
Schools and medical facilities that don’t notify parents within the three-day window could be subject to lawsuits and see up to $100,000 dollars in civil fines.
Coeur d’Alene Republican Sen. Ben Toews sponsors the bill.
BEN TOEWS: “If we allow institutions to bypass parents, we leave our youth vulnerable to a coercive industry built on false assumptions about medicine and human flourishing.”
OH: Major medical groups say gender-affirming care is medically necessary and safe.
All six Democratic senators opposed the bill, including James Ruchti, who shared a news story about a Pocatello couple recently arrested for allegedly abusing their child in public.
JAMES RUCHTI: “It means that we have to possibly go to a family like this and tell them something that that family may not be in a great place to hear.”
OH: Sagle’s Jim Woodward was one of just two GOP senators to vote against the bill, saying he supported the notification but not the fine.
The measure now goes to the governor, who has five days to approve it, veto it or allow it to become law without his signature.
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Washington is trying to modernize the state’s electrical grid by connecting it to clean energy sources.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed legislation yesterday creating a statewide transmission authority to promote and finance new power lines and other infrastructure.
Idaho and several other Western states have similar agencies.
Natalie Manitius from the Clean Air Task Force says the agency will help producers of energy from renewable sources.
NATALIE MANITIUS: “They can develop transmission lines that will directly lead to areas where new clean energy generation is being built, like wind and solar in central Washington where we don't really have transmission lines running there already.”
OH: Manitius says the new agency will likely work closely with the regional Bonneville Power Administration, which owns and operates much of the Northwest grid.
But it will also work with private companies and utilities to help them build more transmission infrastructure.
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A new study indicates cannabis use can negatively affect many kinds of memories—and even create false ones.
New findings from Washington State University show cannabis can impair different kinds of recall, from remembering lists of words and keeping track of conversations to remembering the order of events and where information came from.
Test subjects were given either a placebo or medium to large dose of cannabis vape.
But while the cannabis groups had lower scores in nearly every test, study co-author Carrie Cuttler says the gap wasn’t huge:
CARRIE CUTTLER: “It’s degrading memory. It’s having detrimental impacts. Even the word impairment might be a little bit strong in this case, honestly.”
OH: One of the biggest effects of cannabis was creating false memories.
When asked to recall a specific list of words, the cannabis groups often remembered words that hadn’t been on the original list.
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The Stevens County Library District is proposing a $1.1-million-dollar levy on the April 28 ballot to maintain services and hours across all seven branches.
And as SPR’s rural affairs reporter and Murrow News Fellow Monica Carrillo-Casas tells us, officials say the stakes are high.
MONICA CARRILLO-CASAS: Chatter and giggles spill from a tiny yellow library in the rural town of Hunters, where kids and adults are busy turning milk jugs into mini greenhouses.
But moments like this could be at risk if an operations levy on the April ballot doesn’t get a majority vote.
AMANDA SIX: “We would have to cut about $250,000 from our budget, and that translates to all the things that the people, the staff, bring to the library.”
MCC: That’s Library Director Amanda Six. She says without majority approval of the levy, service cuts are certain.
The Hunters Public Library, for example, is already open just twice a week for only a handful of hours.
Six says if the levy doesn’t pass, those hours could be reduced even further.
That also would include cuts of after-school programs, books and other downloadable material.
The operations levy would tax property owners at a rate of 44 cents per $1,000 dollars in assessed property value for 10 years. That’s an increase of 17 cents.
The last successful ballot measure was nearly 30 years ago.
The library district tried for a levy 12 years ago, but it failed by 600 votes, about 5 percent.
AS: “Since 2011 we've reduced 100 hours of open hour service per week countywide, if you add up all the hours that we've already cut.”
MCC: According to data from the district, more than 20,000 people attended events across the seven libraries.
They were going to things ranging from after-school programs and beekeeping sessions to family tax help.
The data also shows more than 24,000 unique users used the library's Wi-Fi, which is nearly half of the county's population.
Ella Kerner is the branch lead for the Hunters and Colville libraries.
She says she’s seen the importance of their services in the largely rural county over the past five years.
ELLA KERNER: “A lot of folks come in; they just need a printer because, you know, court documents, passport applications, all of that kind of life business… You need internet access, a computer and a printer and not everyone has that.”
MCC: She pointed to the example of a woman spending at least 20 hours using the Hunters Library computers to look for jobs and take online certification classes.
Then one day, the woman came back to tell Kerner she had been hired.
EK: “Having that library service here available for her made all the difference.”
MCC: Kiri Baunach and her kids regularly come to the library, including for a recent event to build mini greenhouses out of milk jugs.
Baunach says they live about five miles from the library and often stop by for books, movies and activities to get the kids out of the house.
As a mom who homeschools her children, Banauch says the library is one of the main places she goes for curriculum and materials.
Kerner says with the limited hours the Hunters library already has, it’s important for them to be able to maintain them for families like the Baunachs.
EK: “A lot of people think about just the books. And of course, we have books. We love books at the libraries. We love readers, but the accessibility to the internet, the accessibility to the world of information and resources, I mean, that's what we would love to expand.”
MCC: With less than a month until the levy vote, Library Director Amanda Six says she understands many Stevens County residents are on fixed incomes and facing financial strain.
Still, she says data from the past year shows a clear need to maintain services and hours across the district.
I’m Monica Carrillo-Casas reporting.
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OH: SPR News Today is a production of Spokane Public Radio.
Reporting today was contributed by Sarah Mizes-Tan, James Dawson, Doug Nadvornick, Steve Jackson, Monica Carrillo-Casas and me, Owen Henderson.
I’m also your host and producer.
Thanks for listening.
It’s SPR.
