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 –...

  Click here to view this week’s report from the legislative session. Dear Friends and Neighbors, My video report focuses on two of the taxes being proposed by Senate Democrats that would cause the most harm to the budgets of families in the 25th District and statewide. One is a...

OLYMPIA… The senators behind the no-new-taxes, no-cuts operating “$ave Washington” budget proposed by Senate Republicans offered this reaction to comments made today by Gov. Bob Ferguson about the operating budgets adopted by the Senate and House of Representatives in the past few days. From Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup, who...

OLYMPIA… Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, and Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, offered this reaction to the operating budgets proposed today by the Legislature’s majority Democrats. The Senate majority’s plan would spend $78.5 billion in the 2025-27 budget cycle – $3 billion more than the Senate Republican “$ave Washington” proposal – while...

Dear Friends and Neighbors, This report is going out a little later than I had hoped, but it has been a busier week than usual. We spent most of Monday through Wednesday working on the floor of the Senate chamber, debating and voting on bills. The first round of “floor...

Click here or on the image to view this week’s report from the legislative session. Dear Friends and Neighbors, While Republicans are busy compiling a list of proposals for eliminating wasteful government spending — more on that next — some in Olympia are considering an increase in the tax paid...