With an unprecedented amount of money in state government’s reserves and plenty of tax revenue coming in to address mental-health treatment and other bipartisan priorities, Sen. John Braun saw no need for Gov. Jay Inslee to demand even more from Washington taxpayers. Yet after the governor released his 2019-21 operating budget proposal this morning, Braun said he was not surprised to learn that the governor still isn’t satisfied.

Inslee is calling for a multibillion-dollar tax increase on employers and the state’s first-ever tax on personal income to finance a $10 billion spending increase. The governor also wants a 131 percent increase in local education property taxes by reinstituting the same inequitable school-funding policy that led to the just-settled McCleary lawsuit.

“Last year the Legislature approved a bipartisan budget that made historic investments in education and increased funding for mental health, higher education and state worker salaries,” said Braun, R-Centralia, who serves as the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “Based on our current projections we’ll have billions more to sustain these investments and still improve special education and mental health. Yet somehow that is not nearly enough money for the governor. At a time when taxpayers are already providing billions more in higher tax revenue, he wants a 67 percent tax-rate increase that would hurt small businesses, an unconstitutional tax on income and a complete wipeout of the bipartisan property-tax reforms due to take effect in 2019.”

The state already projects to take in $50 billion during the 2019-21 budget cycle, a 9.2 percent increase over the existing budget. Inslee’s proposal would increase state taxes by $3.7 billion in the 2019-21 biennium, but that amount rises to $5.4 billion in 2021-23 once his proposed capital-gains income tax would be phased in fully. The end result would be a $10 billion — or 22.4 percent — spending increase over the current budget that also reduces reserves by more than $1 billion. The plan he presented today is not a serious proposal that deals with the realities of crafting and passing a budget.

“If budgets are a statement of priorities, it’s clear the governor will always choose to spend more without considering the effect on taxpayers or the results we achieve.”

Inslee also proposes undoing major bipartisan property-tax reform passed in 2017 that returned the state to its role as primary provider for public schools and capped local-education property-tax levies at $1.50/$1,000 of assessed value or $2,500 per student. Inslee wants to increase the local-education property-tax collections from $1.6 billion to $3.7 billion each year by returning to the inequitable system that allowed districts to raise local funds equal to 28 percent of their state and federal funding.

“Despite the massive and necessary state funding increase for public schools in recent years, there are still areas we need to do better,” said Braun. “But those investments should be made at the state level so we can support all students in all communities. While the governor may pitch this plan as a return to the old levy system, he’s failing to acknowledge how the significant increase in state spending on K-12 education factors into a 28 percent levy cap – meaning it allows a much larger amount of money to be raised locally. This would again make some high-income communities winners and low-income areas losers. This comes after our previous plan rebalanced significant statewide inequities and is set to provide 70 percent of state residents with local education property tax relief.

“Ultimately the governor wants to go on an extreme spending spree and come January it will be up to lawmakers to address our priorities by governing with what we have. At some point, the public is going to run out of patience with annual demands for billions more of their money.”

Lawmakers are scheduled to convene on Jan. 14 for a 105-day session.

Voter-approved charter public schools will remain available to students after today’s Washington State Supreme Court ruling upheld their constitutionality. Sen. John Braun said the court’s affirmation that 2016 legislation corrected constitutional infirmities with the original initiative will ensure charter public schools remain one of many tools the state has to provide all children with a high-quality education.

“Not all students learn the same way so our state has a responsibility to provide a range of choices that best meet the needs of children,” said Braun, R-Centralia, who serves as the ranking Republican on the Senate Ways and Means Committee. “Our state has recognized we must provide alternatives for students when a traditional public school does not meet their needs. Those methods include online classes, college courses while in high school, and for the last few years charter public schools, where we’ve seen positive results.”

Washington became the 42nd state to allow the publicly funded and privately operated charter public schools after voters approved Initiative 1240 in 2012. The initiative, which passed in 36 of the state’s 39 counties, was specifically aimed at helping students in communities where schools were chronically underperforming. However, the education establishment led by the state teachers union filed a successful lawsuit seeking to shut the schools down.

In 2016 the Washington State Legislature passed Senate Bill 6194 with bipartisan support, addressing the issues identified in the previous court ruling and keeping schools open. According to Braun, adult-focused groups again filed suit to close the schools for students, which was rejected in King County Superior Court and ultimately appealed again to the state Supreme Court.

“Since 2015 our state has demonstrated we can make historic investments in public education while also allowing at-risk students in struggling schools to choose a school that works best for them,” said Braun. “I hope that once and for all the adults in the equation will accept that charter public schools are a targeted and beneficial part of our overall education system.”

Braun wrote in-depth about the state’s history and efforts to provide charter public schools in his Economic Sense newsletter, which can be read here or at SenatorJohnBraun.com

Two years after the Chamber Way overpass of I-5 in Chehalis was damaged by a large truck, the new bridge is complete and the Washington State Department of Transportation is preparing to finish the connections and open it to the public.

In order to complete the project Chamber Way will be closed completely for 60 hours beginning October 15. This will allow the crew to finish paving and connecting the roadway and new bridge. Once this is done drivers and pedestrians will be able to access the wider overpass, which has higher clearance for large loads moving along the interstate below.

Signed detours will guide travelers through the area during the closure. Pedestrians will be able to cross I-5 during the closure.

While the October 15th date is the plan, for now, the road closure and opening of the new bridge date may need to change depending on the weather.

For more information on the overall project as well as the latest updates on the closure please visit WSDOT’s website, which you can access by clicking here.

Closure and detour information

·       Monday, Oct. 15 to the morning of Thursday, Oct. 18: Chamber Way will close between the I-5 ramps from 7 p.m. Oct. 15 to 7 a.m. Oct. 18.

·       Monday, Oct. 15 to the morning of Tuesday, Oct. 16: The northbound I-5 off-ramp to Chamber Way will close from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly for paving.

·       Wednesday, Oct. 17 to the morning of Thursday, October 18: The northbound I-5 off-ramp to Chamber Way will close from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. nightly for paving.

In August I enjoyed the opportunity to join with hundreds of area residents at the unveiling of a new statue of Centralia’s founders George and Mary Washington.

Click here to read more about the celebration in the Centralia Chronicle.

TVW — our state’s version of C-SPAN — also created a short video sharing the story of our town’s founder and the great community effort to create the statue. The state’s capital budget provided some of the funding, adding to what had already been raised by local residents and others through donations and fundraisers.

For one week and counting top state officials have been unresponsive to a request from Sen. John Braun to help prevent school closures. On Aug. 24 the Senate Republican budget leader sent a letter to Gov. Jay Inslee, state Attorney General Bob Ferguson and Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal requesting they take an active role in ensuring all schools would be open to students on schedule.

“Our statewide elected officials have a moral responsibility to be actively engaged in ensuring both sides reach a fair agreement so tens of thousands of children can get back in the classroom,” said Braun, R-Centralia. “I’m disappointed that I have received no response from them, but more importantly students, parents and teachers have heard nothing but silence. Starting school on time should be our state’s top priority right now and doing so deserves leadership from statewide elected leaders. Sadly this leadership is currently missing.

“Last week I was concerned about the possibility of children missing class, but there was still time for everyone to come to an agreement and avoid doing harm. But now there are schools closed and students losing out on learning, which is incredibly disappointing and unnecessary given the significant funding increases the Legislature made in recent years.”

In his letter, Braun cited historic investments in Washington state’s public schools that would allow districts to invest in improved educational programs and higher teacher salaries. As a result, more than 50 percent of the current state budget goes toward public schools, which has not happened since the 1981-83 budget.

“The adults in the equation aren’t arguing about no raises versus some, but rather a significant increase compared to an unrealistic one,” said Braun. “We’ve seen multiple instances where school districts have offered 15 percent raises, which have been rejected by union officials demanding 25 to 35 percent increases. I and the overwhelming majority of Washingtonians support paying our teachers well, but there are cases where demands have been wildly unrealistic, even as school districts make competitive offers.”

According to the district and news reports Tumwater educators rejected a 15 percent pay increase over two years and continue demanding twice that amount immediately. Aberdeen union officials also rejected a 15 percent raise and instead have requested a 35 percent pay increase.

During the upcoming 2018-19 school year the state will provide an average of $72,000 for teacher salaries statewide, not including supplemental local pay. Those figures do not include pension, health care and time off benefits.

“It’s incredibly important that we have high-quality teachers in our state and empower them to prepare our children for the future,” said Braun. “I am encouraged to see many districts and teachers reach an agreement in recent days, ensuring children can return to the classroom on schedule. I hope that governor, attorney general and superintendent of public instruction will recognize the problem facing schools where there has not been progress and engage in the process because every day students are kept out of school because of a strike is a day their education is disrupted.”

Sen. John Braun continued calling for significant mental-health reforms and effective executive leadership following Monday morning’s announcement that Western State Hospital, the state’s largest mental-health treatment facility, has lost federal Medicare certification and the more than $50 million in federal funding that went with certification.

“Washington residents need and deserve high-quality mental-health treatment and care. While the loss of federal funding is incredibly problematic, today’s announcement should come as no surprise given the years of warnings and failure of the hospital’s leadership to correct a host of problems. Sadly, instead of solutions, we’ve seen continual leadership failures and a lack of long-term vision. While our governor has offered plenty of platitudes about the importance of mental health, his priorities seem to be elsewhere. It’s clear the Legislature must take a more active role in not only providing funds but also in creating a high-quality treatment system that helps patients and protects staff.”

Braun, R-Centralia, sponsored legislation in 2018 to authorize more than $500 million in bond-based funding to increase community mental-health treatment capacity. Had his proposal been approved, it would have made a historic investment aimed at improving care outcomes for people and allowing Western State to focus on forensic and hard-to-place civil commitment patients.

“Hundreds of millions of dollars have been invested in mental-health efforts over the past four years, and lawmakers have largely agreed on the goals and path toward meeting them. Despite that in May the governor held a press conference outlining his vision, which offered nothing new and dodged the difficult part of how to actually pay for and implement the corrections that are obviously needed.

“While managing executive agencies falls under the governor’s purview, it has been clear for some time that the Legislature will need to be more prescriptive in the future when it comes to mental-health policy. We need real results for our most vulnerable friends and neighbors, not empty promises.”

Braun’s mental-health investment package was the subject of his Economic Sense newsletter, which can be read in detail here.