Martial Arts Supporters Some GREAT news for you. At the beginning of 2016 those of us with martial arts schools were forced to start charging you up to 9.6% sales tax on all of our services. Tuition, seminars, tests... (It went up to 10.1% in April of this year in the Seattle area adding to the damage) In response a few school owners formed an association in October 2015, the Washington State Martial Arts Association, and started rallying schools across the state together. Over the last 2 years we've met with legislators, hired lobbyists, raised funds, testified in Olympia, built websites, petitions, Facebook pages, done mailing drives, got news coverage and many have spent 100's of hours and $1,000's of dollars of their own money to get this overturned. We came very close in 2015/2016 but came up short as you know. BAD news is the sudden 10% raise in rates damaged a great many schools over the last 16 months. This was caused primarily by waves of students dropping out as the tax was imposed and a greater percentage of incoming students, and families in particular, choosing not to join or continue. Many school owners layed off staff, downsized, dipped into their personal savings to survive and a few folded. This year, 2016/2017, Rep. Ryu (D) once again sponsored a bill in the House with over 30 bi-partisan sponsors. Sen. Warnick (R) and Sen. Fain (R) both sponsored bi-partisan bills in the Senate and got a last minute amendment in the early Senate budget. The GREAT NEWS is we actually got it done for you this year! Here is part of what Rep. Ryu posted today: "HB 1032 on Martial Arts Sales Tax was included in SB 5977 which just passed 83 to 10 at 12:01 a.m. Last year the instructors of martial arts, the Masters, 사범님 and their students throughout Washington State filled 4 hearing rooms and conveyed how important martial arts instruction was in their lives." There was overwhelming support on both sides of the aisle so be sure to thank your legislators! The Governor signed the bill last night restoring our status as a service which means in 3 months martial arts students will no longer pay ANY sales tax. We still need the Department of Revenue to make a formal ruling on this issue but we don't anticipate that it will be a problem. We think we're good to celebrate! Thank you for signing our petition and joining our fight! Our association is still accepting and grateful for donations to help with expenses due to the extra special legislative sessions. And, of course, now would be a really great time to support a martial art school in your area and help them rebuild. Sometimes the good guy wins.