OLYMPIA… Sen. Chris Gildon will lead Republicans on the Senate Ways and Means Committee for the 2025-26 legislative term. The Puyallup lawmaker had been assistant Republican leader on the budget committee for the past two years.

Lawmakers must pass three biennial budgets during their 2025 session, which will begin Jan. 13. The largest of the budgets will fund the operation of most state agencies.

Gildon said his focus will be on producing a responsible and sustainable operating budget that addresses the priorities of government while respecting the needs and concerns of Washington taxpayers.

He said Republicans will question spending proposals that seem unnecessary and inefficient, and offer reforms that maintain or improve the delivery of services at less cost.

“The Legislature hasn’t faced a budget deficit in many years, but we seem to be in that position now – despite $5 billion in anticipated revenue growth, a low unemployment rate and no economic recession on the horizon. The problem is not too little revenue. It’s too much spending, mostly in the form of demands coming from the executive branch.

“No one seems to agree on the size of the projected gap between revenue and spending. The governor’s office and some of my Democratic colleagues have suggested it’s $10 billion or maybe even $12 billion. Either way, legislators on the majority side are already talking about raising taxes, despite knowing that many of the families they represent are struggling financially.

“Democratic leaders have suggested that the people of our state would be willing to pay higher taxes. That’s not the message I am hearing from my constituents. Republicans want living in Washington to be affordable, and that means tax increases should be a last resort, not the first option.

“We should be looking hard at the spending side of the new budget before anything else. Governor-elect Ferguson recently declared that pursuing savings and efficiencies are the ‘first, second and third conversation’ as far as he is concerned. That’s encouraging, and we intend to hold him to that.”

Gildon, elected to the Senate in 2020 after serving the 25th Legislative District for two years in the House of Representatives, will continue serving on the Senate Housing Committee.