WashingtonIndependents.org

ESB 5111 — Capital gains excise tax

ESB 5111 was introduced in the 2017-18 Washington legislative session by Braun. It never received a public hearing and did not become law.

Dying without a vote is the ordinary outcome for a Washington bill, not a scandal and not a failure of any one person. This page shows where it stopped, who was recorded, and what the record does not say.

  • 2017-18 session
  • Senate
  • Did not become law
  • No public hearing
  • Sponsor: Braun

Source Washington State Legislature web services: legislation, hearings and roll calls · as of 2026-08-12 · introduced 2017-01-12

01

Where it stopped

Died

Last recorded action
Failed final passage; yeas, 0; nays, 48; absent, 0; excused, 1.
Position
S Failed FP — the Legislature's own location code
Last committee
Senate Ways & Means — the last committee with this bill on an agenda
Public hearing
None on record — a public hearing is where testimony is taken; an executive session is where a committee votes

This bill was never given a public hearing in Senate Ways & Means. It was introduced, referred to committee, and the session ended without testimony ever being taken on it. That is the ordinary fate of 44% of the bills that die in Washington — it is not evidence that anyone blocked it, and we do not know who decided.

Last checked 2026-08-12

Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12

02

What it would do

The Legislature’s own description. We do not paraphrase legislation.

Enacting an excise tax on capital gains to improve the fairness of Washington's tax system and provide funding for the education legacy trust account.

Legal title AN ACT Relating to enacting an excise tax on capital gains to improve the fairness of Washington's tax system and provide funding for the education legacy trust account;

Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12

03

The votes

Recorded floor votes. Committee votes are in the hearing record below.

SENATE · 2017-03-23

Motion to suspend the rules, advance the measure to 3rd Rdg & Final Passage

25

yea

7

nay

17

absent or excused

SENATE · 2017-04-21

Adoption of Striking Amendment Number 278 by Senator Braun

25

yea

23

nay

1

absent or excused

SENATE · 2017-04-21

Motion by Senator Braun to advance to 3rd Reading & Final Passage

25

yea

23

nay

1

absent or excused

SENATE · 2017-04-21

3rd Reading & Final Passage

0

yea

48

nay

1

absent or excused

Source WA Legislature roll call service · as of 2026-08-12 · 4 recorded votes

04

Sponsors

Who put their name to the bill. The Legislature records a prime sponsor on the bill status; the full co-sponsor roster appears only in the introduced bill text, which we have not ingested.

Prime sponsor

Braun

as printed the sponsor line on the bill status record · introduced in the Senate. A committee substitute prints the committee here, with the originating member in parentheses.

The co-sponsor roster is not on this page. We hold the prime sponsor the Legislature prints on the bill status, not the list of co-sponsors, which is published only in the introduced bill text we have not ingested. A co-sponsor count here would be a number no record we hold contains.

Source WA Legislature legislation service · as of 2026-08-12

05

The hearing record

Every committee meeting where this bill appeared on the agenda. Public is where testimony is taken; Executive is where the committee votes.

Committee hearing record
Date Type Committee Chamber
2017-02-24 Executive Senate Ways & Means Senate

None of these was a public hearing. This bill reached a committee agenda but testimony was never taken on it.

Source WA Legislature committee hearing records · as of 2026-08-12 · 0 public, 1 executive

06

What changed between versions

Only one version on file. The bill was never substituted or engrossed, or the legislation service returns only the surviving version for this session — for completed biennia it usually returns the latter.

Last checked 2026-08-12

07

Connected records

Every link in this section is an edge in the entity graph: a row in one table, carrying the document that states it. Grouped by how well the record supports it.

Composite · 1

Two documents joined on a key, and the key is named here.

Source Entity graph, synced from the pipeline · as of 2026-08-12 · Votes are in the graph but render as roll-call tables above, not as rows here. Hearings, referrals and companion bills are not in the graph yet.

08

What this page will not compute

Each of these is a number a reader might reasonably expect. None of them follow from the records we hold, so we do not publish them.

Who killed it
We can say a bill was never scheduled for a public hearing. We cannot say who decided that. Chairs control agendas, but the record does not attribute a non-decision to a person, and we will not infer one from a committee roster.
Why it died
Withdrawn, superseded by its own companion, folded into a budget, or simply never taken up — all four look identical in the data.
Whether lobbying affected it
Washington collects lobbyist compensation and employer registrations, but none of those filings name a bill. There is no documented link between a lobbying report and a bill number, so we publish none.
What changed between versions
We hold the version list, not the text of each version.
How a member would have voted
Only recorded votes appear here. A member absent from a roll call is recorded as absent, not as opposed.

09

Common questions

What happened to ESB 5111?
ESB 5111 did not become law. It stopped in Senate Ways & Means. The 2017-18 session ended without it passing both chambers, so it is not law.
Who sponsored ESB 5111?
The prime sponsor of record is Braun, as printed on the bill status. This page does not list co-sponsors — that roster is published only in the introduced bill text, which we have not ingested.
What would ESB 5111 do?
In the Legislature’s own description: “Enacting an excise tax on capital gains to improve the fairness of Washington's tax system and provide funding for the education legacy trust account.” We quote the official language rather than summarising, because a paraphrase of legislation is an interpretation.
Was there a recorded vote on ESB 5111?
Yes. 4 recorded floor votes appear on this page, member counts and all. Committee votes are held separately as scanned sign-off sheets and are not counted here.
Did ESB 5111 get a public hearing?
No public hearing is on record for ESB 5111. Testimony was never taken on it, which is the ordinary fate of most bills that do not advance — not evidence that anyone blocked it.

Cite this page

This is public-records reporting. Use it, and say where it came from.

“ESB 5111 — Capital gains excise tax,” WashingtonIndependents.org, data as of 2026-08-12, accessed 2026-08-30. https://washingtonindependents.org/bill/2017-18-sb-5111/

10

How this page is built

Every figure above is read from a primary source and rebuilt on a schedule. Nothing here is modelled or inferred; where a source is silent the page says so rather than filling the gap.

WA Legislature legislation service
Bill id, titles, sponsor, introduced date, and the history line and location code we render as its status.
WA Legislature committee hearing records
Every committee agenda this bill appeared on, and whether each was a public hearing or an executive session.
WA Legislature roll call service
Recorded floor votes, member by member.
Outcome
Derived, not published by the Legislature. Enacted means a chapter number or effective date is on record; died is only ever assigned once a session has ended; a sitting session yields pending and no death is asserted.
Not loaded
Bill text, amendments, committee votes as individual member records, testimony, and fiscal notes.