Feb. 28, 2026 This week’s “Inside Olympia” program on the TVW network was dedicated to the state operating budget. The show leads off with Sen. June Robinson, the Democrats’ budget-committee chair; my portion starts at the 27:27 mark. Click here to view it. Dear Friends and Neighbors, The Senate is...

OLYMPIA… Leaders in the state Legislature’s Senate Republican Caucus offered these comments following the majority Democrats’ passage of legislation to create a state income tax. Senate Bill 6346 was passed with a 27-22 vote: From Senate Republican Leader John Braun of Centralia: “This income-tax bill clearly goes against our state...

OLYMPIA… The Republican senators who saw their service-saving, no-new-taxes budget rejected by Democrats earlier this year are reacting cautiously to the supplemental 2025-27 operating budget proposed today by Gov. Bob Ferguson. Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup, Senate Republican budget leader, said it’s essential for Ferguson to now avoid flip-flopping when...

OLYMPIA… Today’s adoption of the final state revenue forecast for 2025 means the next move in dealing with Olympia’s self-inflicted financial woes falls to Gov. Bob Ferguson, says Sen. Chris Gildon, Senate Republican budget leader. Compared to the third-quarter projection from the state’s non-partisan chief economist, revenue is now expected to...

OLYMPIA… The second of this year’s quarterly state-revenue forecasts was adopted today by Sen. Chris Gildon and other members of the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council. The new predictions from the state’s chief economist have revenue collections for the 2025-27 and 2027-29 operating-budget cycles falling $490 million and $638...

OLYMPIA… Senate Republican leaders say the governor chose the wrong side today in signing a new state operating budget that relies on the largest package of tax increases in Washington history. Despite earlier denouncing new taxes that would hit the state’s working families, Gov. Bob Ferguson decided not to veto...

OLYMPIA… Today the Senate majority approved a sales-tax increase that will hit lower- and middle-income families harder, a tax increase that will drive capital out of Washington, and a collection of unrelated tax increases that includes a new tax on self-storage rentals. Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup, Senate Republican budget...

Click here to view this week’s report from the legislative session. Dear Friends and Neighbors, It’s day 96 of this year’s 105-day legislative session. By now we’ve been able to see which bills are considered priorities by the majority, and which are not. The majority has approved several bills that...

OLYMPIA… As Washingtonians mark Tax Day, Olympia is seeing a second wave of tax proposals from the state Senate’s majority Democrats, to go with the $21 billion in new and higher taxes wrapped into the operating-budget proposal they endorsed two weeks ago. The majority’s new tax legislation emerged today –...