Governor will block hastily approved tax ‘if he’s consistent’, says budget leader OLYMPIA… A bipartisan group of high-ranking state legislators today asked Gov. Jay Inslee to veto a new $133 million tax that came out of nowhere to zoom through the Legislature just before its annual session ended April 28....

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...

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,...

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...

OLYMPIA…The state Senate today doubled down on its support for the special-education policy improvements in Sen. John Braun’s Senate Bill 5532, with a vote that would have the effect of keeping the bill alive through the end of the Legislature’s regular session Sunday. “The Democrat leadership in the House has...

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia and budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus, offered the following comments about his vote to oppose Senate Bill 5993, which would make controversial changes to the state’s Model Toxics Control Act, including a tax increase of nearly 60 percent on certain petroleum products. “The fund...

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun today proposed a way for lawmakers to answer school-funding concerns while protecting taxpayers against big increases in local school levies. Senate Bill 6021, introduced with less than six full days left in this year’s 105-day session, is being offered as an alternative to two measures still in...

OLYMPIA…Less than two years after legislators brought Washington’s school-funding approach into the 21st century by rebalancing state and local school-levy rates, Democrat members of the Senate Ways and Means Committee are supporting a return to higher local school taxes. Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia and an architect of the landmark education-funding...

OLYMPIA…Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia and budget leader for the Senate Republican Caucus, said this about the 2019-21 state operating budget proposed today by the Senate majority: “The Legislature is well-positioned this year to pass a budget that would support major new investments in bipartisan priorities, like special education and mental-health...