Washington State’s 20th District Senator, John Braun, R-Centrailia, and Chair of the Senate Trade and Economic Development Committee, talks about his bill to help businesses in Washington State by repealing the never-funded paid family leave insurance provision of the 2007 family and medical leave act.
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Washington State’s 20th District Freshman Senator, John Braun, R-Centrailia, and Chair of the Senate Trade and Economic Development Committee, talks about his first two weeks of the 2013 legislative session in Olympia.
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Sen. Braun talks about his goals for the 2013 session, which include creating a better environment for job growth, funding education and balancing the state budget without raising taxes. Continue reading
Proposed amendment would add supermajority requirement to state’s constitution
OLYMPIA… Inspired by the repeated passage of initiatives requiring a two-thirds vote in the Legislature to raise taxes, Sen. John Braun is sponsoring Senate Joint Resolution 8200, which would let Washington voters decide whether to permanently add that supermajority standard to the state constitution.
Braun, R-Centralia, believes voters sent a strong message to lawmakers in November when they approved the two-thirds threshold for the third time in five years, in the form of Initiative 1185. The same standard had been approved in 2010 as Initiative 1053 and in 2007 as Initiative 960.
Washington’s constitution may be changed only by a vote of the people, while laws created through citizen initiatives – such as the I-1185 law and its predecessors – may be suspended after just two years with a simple-majority vote of the Legislature. Without I-1185’s passage, Braun explained, lawmakers could have raised taxes this legislative session with a majority vote rather than a supermajority, just as they did in 2010. Continue reading
Sen. John Braun today took the oath of office to become the new senator representing the 20th Legislative District.
Braun, R-Centralia, looks forward to his role as chairman of the Senate Trade and Economic Development Committee and to upholding the principles of the new Majority Coalition Caucus, a bipartisan coalition that now leads the Senate.
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Jan. 14, 2013 Sen. John Braun (360) 786-7638
OLYMPIA… Sen. John Braun today took the oath of office to become the new senator representing the 20th Legislative District.
Braun, R-Centralia, looks forward to his role as chairman of the Senate Economic Development, Trade and Innovation Committee and to upholding the principles of the new Majority Coalition Caucus, a bipartisan coalition that now leads the Senate.
“I am excited to use my experience as a business leader to help get people across our state back to work,” Braun said. “I am also proud to be a part of a coalition that is united behind a set of principles that should help address major issues such as jobs, education and the need for a sustainable state budget. Our majority is committed to creating an economic environment in which jobs are plentiful and small businesses have the opportunity to thrive.” Continue reading
TVW is the state’s version of the C-SPAN network. It covers every legislative hearing and voting session that takes place at the Capitol, and also offers some original public-affairs programming. One of those programs is “The Impact,” which airs on Wednesday evenings (but is always available online).
The program’s host wanted to interview two of the incoming legislative freshmen — yes, that’s the term — and one of the invitations came to me (the other went to a new House Democrat from the 17th Legislative District, which unlike our district is entirely in Clark County). Continue reading
