Legislation offers grants to assist businesses with security, sanitation needs

With time starting to run short for Senate policy committees to move bills forward in the 2020 session, Sen. John Braun is hoping to see action soon on his proposal to address sanitation and security needs in commercial districts with homeless populations.

“I’m glad to see the housing situation is more of a bipartisan conversation this year, but the focus on increasing the supply of housing or other shelter doesn’t get at the public-health, public-safety and property-protection concerns that can result when people choose to set up camp or take shelter in and around a downtown core,” said Braun, R-Centralia.

Senate Bill 6196 would make impact grants available to chambers or business associations to support additional security and sanitation services; the bill will be considered “dead” if the Senate Housing Stability and Affordability Committee fails to advance it by Feb. 7.

“Sanitation is vital — discarded needles and human waste on the sidewalk are clearly public-health issues that affect everyone, including businesses,” said Braun, who has asked without success for a public hearing on the measure. “Security is just as important, so businesses have less chance of experiencing property damage or theft, and can provide a welcoming environment to their customers. It’s about maintaining a sense of order on our streets.”

Proposal would slowly shift tax on vehicle purchases away from operating budget

OLYMPIA… Sen. John Braun is proposing to add a major new funding source for transportation needs across Washington without imposing a new tax. The Senate Republican budget leader plans to file legislation that would begin shifting the state sales-tax revenue from vehicle purchases into the transportation budget, instead of continuing to spend it on day-to-day government operations.

“Relying on gas-tax revenue and car tabs as the main sources of revenue for transportation needs is financially unreliable and politically difficult,” said Braun, R-Centralia. “The Legislature would be wise to start cultivating an additional source of transportation revenue, and the sales tax on vehicles is a logical candidate.

“This approach also has a progressive quality to it, because people who spend more on a vehicle will pay more tax – and that’s more equitable than car-tab costs that can fluctuate by hundreds of dollars based on nothing more than your address.”

Braun’s proposal would move the state portion of vehicle sales-tax revenue into a new fund, by 10 percent per year starting in 2020. The shift would be complete in 10 years, giving ample time for those writing the transportation and operating budgets to adjust, he explained.

It’s estimated the approach would provide more than $30 billion for transportation investments over the next 20 years. That’s approximately double the value of the “Connecting Washington” package of projects and revenue approved by lawmakers in 2015.

“Between long-term economic projections and substantial savings coming next decade from paying off the state’s long-term pension liability, there should be more than enough revenue to keep up with the phasing-in of this legislation and allow an orderly transition that protects the operating budget,” Braun said.

The idea has received a favorable response from the Republican leader on the Senate Transportation Committee.

“We know the current gas tax won’t support the transportation investments our state needs. Adding this existing sales-tax revenue as a funding source would allow us to maintain and increase new transportation investments,” said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima. “This approach could help the Legislature honor the voters’ desire for affordable car tabs while addressing funding concerns resulting from the passage of Initiative 976.”

The Wire caught up with Sen. Braun post-session to talk about the budget, tax bills that passed, and his forward-looking priorities. Click here for Part 1.

OLYMPIA… Sen. John Braun remembers the big-taxes, big-spending budget Gov. Jay Inslee proposed to lawmakers before their 2019 session, so it was no shock today when Inslee endorsed an avalanche of unnecessary new taxes and a record state operating budget to spend them.

“The governor wanted a business-tax increase and got one, but not the new state income tax or the $54 billion in spending he’d proposed,” said Braun, who is Senate Republican budget leader. “For all we know, he may be disappointed that there weren’t more new taxes to approve along with a $52.4 billion budget that still sets a record.”

Braun, R-Centralia, maintains there is no need for new taxes because state government hasn’t seen such a positive budget situation this century, maybe ever. Even so, the majority party in the Senate and House of Representatives endorsed taxes totaling nearly $7 billion more over four years, counting a new payroll tax and the enabling of higher local school levies.

“The governor and his budget office could see as well as the rest of us how the state economy was producing enough revenue to protect all of today’s services and programs and still allow major new investments in behavioral health and special education,” Braun said. “But he still went for the tax-and-spend home run in his budget proposal, and for the most part, the legislators from his party agreed – which isn’t good news for the families and employers who will pay the price one way or another.”

Last week Braun was part of a bipartisan group of high-ranking legislators who formally asked Inslee to veto a new $133 million tax that shot through the Legislature in about 48 hours as the session was drawing to a close April 28. Instead, the governor signed House Bill 2167 today, which effectively doubles the business-and-occupation (B&O) tax on out-of-state banks.

“It was a long shot but we thought it was worth appealing to the governor’s sense of consistency,” said Braun, referring to Inslee’s 2017 veto – on the grounds that it moved through the Legislature too quickly – of a bill to extend the state’s lower tax rate on aerospace to all other manufacturers in Washington.

“It seems the governor has different rules: when government wants to take more money, there’s no such thing as approving a tax hike too hastily. Apparently a quick decision is only a problem when it comes to tax fairness, and letting people keep more of their own money.” 

OLYMPIA… The state Senate moved into the final day of the 2019 legislative session with majority Democrats extending their streak of overnight tax votes, the worst of which would slap a 20-percent rate increase on some 40 industries and categories of professional-service providers. That bill was passed at approximately 5 a.m. today.

“The majority says this new tax, which would pull close to a billion dollars out of the economy in just four years, is critical for supporting higher education. But the truth is, higher taxes on these industries and employers are no more necessary than the higher taxes on fuel and real-estate transactions and other things that were approved Thursday night and Friday night,” said Braun, R-Centralia.

“It’s unbelievable that all of these tax increases are coming at a time when state government is already taking in a record amount of tax revenue,” he explained, “and that our colleges and universities need to pin their hopes for funding on a new tax bill, much less this one. It’s so badly designed that even the state revenue department is predicting difficulty with collection.

Braun, who led the development of the Senate budget two years ago and remains budget leader for Senate Republicans, said he’s struck by how the tax votes are happening only after dark.

“That’s when news reporters are less likely to be present, and fewer people are likely to be viewing via the TVW network, which makes it simpler for legislators to avoid the attention of our state’s taxpayers.”

OLYMPIA… Sen. John Braun says Washington taxpayers are in for it if the new taxes and spending in the next state operating budget are even close to what’s in the tentative budget he saw today.

“It’s astonishing. We came into this session with the best budget situation of the century, maybe longer, and absolutely no justification for new taxes,” Braun said. “Now, two days away from the end of the session, the Democrat majorities in the Senate and House are on track to approve the biggest spending increase in 30 years and a ‘taxapalooza’ to prop it up.

“No one is safe from what they’re about to do,” said the 20th District lawmaker, who is budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus.

Six years of huge investments in K-12 education swelled the state’s two-year operating budget swelled to a record $44.6 billion for the 2017-19 budget cycle. The Legislature’s budget writers had $50.5 billion available for the 2019-21 budget, thanks to continued strong performance from Washington’s economy. But the majority Democrats want to spend even more – $52.4 billion – and that means lots of new taxes, Braun said.

Braun says to look for higher taxes on major employers, small employers and certain professional services, and higher taxes on real-estate sales. The Senate’s Democrat majority already approved a stealth tax on fuel, and a billion-dollar payroll tax, and a tax that will threaten border-county retailers. Also on the horizon is a controversial change in the school-funding system, approved late Friday by members of the Senate majority. It could see many property owners paying 67 percent more in local school taxes, while raising new constitutional concerns.

None of the new taxes is necessary, Braun stressed, because state government already had more than enough revenue to make new investments in special education and mental-health treatment while continuing other services and programs at their normal levels.

“What a difference two years makes,” said Braun, who was in charge of crafting the Senate budget for 2017-19 when Republicans led a bipartisan majority coalition. “This wouldn’t be happening if our side was still writing the budget, because we viewed new taxes as a last resort. That’s not the attitude I’m seeing now.”

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun says big local school-tax hikes will be inevitable if the Democrat-controlled Legislature lifts the limit of $1.50 per $1,000 assessed valuation on school district “enrichment” levies – and the first step was taken Friday night. Braun, R-Centralia and an architect of the landmark education-funding updates enacted in 2017, offered this comment after the Senate’s Democrat majority passed Senate Bill 5313.

“This bill isn’t about restoring local-levy ‘flexibility,’ it’s about enabling financial bailouts that will be supported by higher property taxes. It would wipe out the work we did just two years ago to rebalance state and local funding and deal with funding inequities. This particular approach would allow local taxes to go up by 67 percent. The House is considering a formula that would be even worse for taxpayers.

“It’s hard to believe the members of the majority side would still endorse higher property taxes after we had just offered a way to let them protect their constituents while resolving their school districts’ funding concerns, and respond to the need for more special-education funding.

“The majority Democrats say they are putting people first, but this only puts some people first. A levy rate of 64 cents per thousand in Seattle and 86 cents per thousand in Bellevue would raise $3,000 per student while many school districts around the rest of the state still couldn’t hit that mark even if their voters were willing to pay $2.50 per thousand, as this bill would allow. It’s a regressive approach that benefits districts with high property values and hurts districts where property values are lower.

“Deep down, at least some of my Democrat colleagues must realize they’re making a huge error that is going to have consequences. They have to realize who will get the blame when property-tax bills start going up by two-thirds. And make no mistake: increasing local-levy authority will eventually lead back to an overreliance on local tax dollars, tax inequity, funding inequity and educational inequity.”