Trio of Snohomish County cities join the state Business Licensing Service

Contractor business licensing streamlined across most Puget Sound cities

OLYMPIA, WASH. – Nov. 7, 2019 –The state Department of Revenue’s Business Licensing Service (BLS) will welcome the cities of Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace, and the town of Woodway to the BLS partnership this fall.

These three new partners join 10 other cities in Snohomish County – population 800,000 – that are connected to BLS. Combined licensing helps contractors and other businesses working across the region obtain and renew local licenses in several cities in one annual payment process.

Nelson’s Electric does commercial, industrial and large-scale residential work in more than a dozen Puget Sound area communities. Nelson’s, a Washington company since 1971, has nearly 100 employees that work in more than a dozen cities that use BLS for local license administration.

“People count on us to do our design and installation without delay. Syncing up the licensing process for most cities across the region saves us time so we can focus on our work powering up the buildings where people work to power up our regional economy,” said Jerome Matthews, controller for Nelson’s Electric.

Nearby cities of Edmonds, Lake Stevens, Marysville, and Mukilteo are BLS partners. Mill Creek and dozens more city partners will join in 2020 to streamline license applications and renewals in the same processes that businesses use to obtain hundreds of types of state licenses, such as architect firms and minor work permits.

More information is at bls.dor.wa.gov.

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The Department of Revenue is Washington state’s primary tax agency, nationally recognized as a trusted leader in tax administration and customer service. Revenue administers nearly 60 categories of taxes that help fund vital public services. It also oversees programs that return money to the public, including the Working Families Tax Credit and Unclaimed Property.