In the 2026 legislative session, House Republicans initiated a floor debate that was three times as long as any in recent memory in an attempt to stop the passage of an income tax on the state's highest earners, dubbed the “millionaire’s tax” by majority Democrats.
Southwest Washington lawmaker Rep. Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, who is serving his 12th term in the Legislature, said there hasn’t been any debate near as long since he was first appointed to a seat in 2002. If it wasn’t already clear how central the battle over a state income tax on millionaire earners was this session, he said the debate alone should leave no doubt.
But the session wasn’t all disappointment for Orcutt, who managed to pass at least one bill that he hopes will provide some relief to recent tax hikes and championed language that will initiate the relocation of the Bob Oke Game Farm in Centralia once signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson.
Orcutt paid a visit to The Chronicle last week to talk about the year's short legislative session and unpack the state's attempt to pass an income tax, the relocation of the Bob Oke Game Farm and everything in between.
Disappointments
Orcutt has long been staunchly opposed to tax increases in the state and has also in the past advocated for the Legislature to consider tax relief for its residents as recently as 2021 when the state found its revenues growing more than expected.
So it's no surprise that, like his fellow Republican seatmates in the 20th District, he sees the passage of an income tax on those earning more than $1 million a year in the state as the session's biggest disappointment.
For Orcutt, the tax is evidence of the Legislature’s overspending, just like tax hikes were last year. He’s also concerned that an income tax could make the problem worse in the future. Income taxes are known for being relatively volatile compared to other revenue streams, and they generally bring in less revenue during hard economic times and more in good times.
“They're just overspending,” Orcutt said. “That's all there is to it. And an income tax is not going to solve that problem. It's actually threatening to make the situation worse.”
The millionaire’s tax was not the only source of frustration for Orcutt. Looking back on the session, he also pointed out a list of other changes to the state's taxes and fees to include things like raising the state's business and occupation tax on prescription medication warehousing, elimination of tax breaks for certain home mortgages and eliminating tax breaks for data centers.
Orcutt argues the problem goes beyond just the direct impacts of each individual change. The bigger problem, he said, is the overall instability of the state's tax code.
“That makes our tax climate look very, very unstable and extremely risky to any business that wants to come and locate here,” Orcutt said. “The Legislature has got to put the kibosh on this.”
Bob Oke Game Farm
Orcutt was the prime sponsor of a bill to begin the relocation of the Bob Oke Game Farm, which by the end of the session was integrated into the state's supplemental capital budget in the form of a proviso. Provisos are conditions provided and dictate the use of money included in a state budget.
The final language in the capital budget matched that of his original bill, setting a staged approach to relocation. The capital budget also earmarked $50,000 for the Washington state Department of Fish and Wildlife to begin the search for more suitable sites for the game farm.
The game farm, located in Centralia and managed by the WDFW, is widely seen as being the main source of nitrate contamination in groundwater in the Fords Prairie area. WDFW raises thousands of pheasants on the land each year.
Early in the session, Orcutt joined as a cosponsor on a bill introduced by 20th District lawmaker Rep. Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis. That bill, House Bill 2343, called for public game farms to meet the same water quality standards as private farms. That bill would have required more water monitoring, additional permits and more. The Bob Oke Game Farm has met many if not all of these requirements already while responding to water contamination.
But, the lawmaker said, after signing on to that bill, he later decided they needed to take more immediate action concerning the local game farm.
“I was thinking, we need to do more than that,” Orcutt said. “That’s a great short-term solution, but we need to do more than that.”
Kickstarting the relocation effort through the capital budget was not how Orcutt planned things to go originally. He had at first hoped his bill would be passed in its own right. He introduced the bill relatively late in the session and pushed it through the first cutoff on the last day. From there, it didn’t advance.
Instead of advancing to the floor in bill form, members of the Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee told Orcutt they would refer the bill to the Capital Budget Committee for inclusion in the 2026 supplemental capital budget.
“I'm not opposed to finding alternative ways of getting it done,” Orcutt said. “When I look back at it, you know, the Capital Budget may be the best way of getting it done.”
Prepaying the capital gains tax
Orcutt had another win this session. He managed to get a bill he introduced in the state's 2025 legislative session back into play. The bill allows Washington state residents to prepay what they owe in the state's capital gains tax, and this year it made it through both chambers and was signed by Gov. Ferguson just last week.
According to Orcutt, the bill solved a relatively simple problem. By allowing individuals to pay their capital gain tax in advance, they are able to report that tax payment when filing with the federal government and, as a result, pay less in federal taxes.
“It doesn't give them any savings on their state capital gains liability,” Orcutt said. “But it does reduce their liability and how much they have to pay to the federal government. That keeps a little bit more money here in the state of Washington.”
Next session
Orcutt says he has a few goals for the next session ranging from reviving multiple bills he introduced this year to repealing tax increases from the 2025 legislative session. He also wants to pursue solutions for the state's coin dealers and reforms on the state's forest practices board.
Orcutt introduced multiple bills this session seeking to repeal tax hikes ranging from one on non-tobacco nicotine products such as ZYN to business and occupation taxes.
He now also hopes to undo the removal of a sales tax exemption on precious metal bouillon, which describes pieces of high-purity precious metals like gold often shaped into coins. Orcutt worries that without the exemption, coin dealers and those selling precious metals will relocate southward to Oregon.
Orcutt also would like to take a look at the bylaws for the Washington Forest Practices Board. The board late last year approved a controversial rule expanding buffer zones around streams that will bar land owners from cutting more trees.
Opponents warn it will lead to significant profit losses for commercial and small private timber land owners. The rule passed on the slimmest of margins and was originally thought to have failed by not meeting a minimum number of needed votes.
Many boards require a certain number of its members to attend a meeting to conduct a meeting. That number is called a quorum. During the meeting, staff pointed out that abstaining votes, according to the board's bylaws, effectively lowered the board's quorum and by extension lowered the minimum number of votes required to approve a new rule.
