Watch my weekly legislative update video.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
You might be tired of hearing about the income bill, and I am tired of talking about it. But this bill is so bad that we can’t stop talking about it until we stop the bill itself.
Senate Democrats passed the income tax (Senate Bill 6346) when it came to the Senate floor last week. Three of them joined us in voting “no.” Now the bill is being considered in the House of Representatives and the House Fiscal Committee has scheduled it for a hearing at 8 a.m. on Feb. 24.
You have until 6 a.m. that day to sign in CON on the bill. More than 61,000 people signed in CON when it was heard in the Senate. This made it the most unpopular bill in state history. We need you to do that again.
Proponents of the tax are in denial about how many people took the time to oppose the bill, saying they were bots. The Legislature’s system has safeguards against bots. Those claims are ridiculous and insulting to you, the people.
When we debated the bill in the Senate, Republicans offered several important amendments — all of which were defeated by Democrats. These amendments would have:
- Ensured that the tax ONLY ever applies to millionaires.
- Removed the clause in the bill that prevents the people from overturning the income tax through referendum.
- Nullified the income tax unless voters approve an amendment to the Washington State Constitution to legalize an income tax.
- Exempted diapers from sales tax.
You may have heard claims that stopping the income tax jeopardizes funding for education and healthcare. The truth is that not one dime of the $3.5 billion this bill is expected to raise every year is earmarked for education or healthcare.
Some Democrats have said that more than 40% of the current operating budget is spent on education — as if that means that the same will be true for any money this tax adds to the general fund. This is misleading. No such requirement exists for new revenue. The majority will be able to spend it however they want.
Tell them NO again. Sign in CON to oppose SB 6346 before it’s hearing on Feb. 24. You can also submit written testimony or sign up to testify during the hearing.
Bad Senate bills stopped in their tracks
Although a bill that hasn’t moved can be resurrected at any point during a legislative session, it doesn’t happen often. The following is a list of six bad bills that are considered “dead,” for all intents and purposes, because they were not passed by the Senate before the cutoff we reached Feb. 17.
I hope to have more to add to this list when this session ends in March, but sometimes we need to celebrate our wins as they come.
- SB 5312 (Sponsor: Sen. Wellman): Would have shortened the length of time a sex offender convicted during a “net nanny” online sting must remain on the sex offender registry.
- SB 5382 and SB 5973 (Sponsor: Valdez): These bills have been referred to as the Initiative Killer and the Initiative Killer 2.0. Both bills would have made it harder and more expensive for citizens to collect signatures for and submit initiatives/referenda to directly enact or overturn state laws. They would have undermined direct democracy and made it easier for legislators to pass taxes and other bills without fear that the people would intervene.
- SB 5926 (Sponsor: Wellman): This bill would have exempted state-subsidized daycares from certain public records requirements, making it more difficult for the public to obtain information about daycares and their owners. Although it was filed before news of daycare fraud in Minnesota became public, the bill would have undermined transparency if something similar happened in Washington.
- SB 5942 (Sponsor: Wilson, C.): A surge in lawsuits alleging various forms of misconduct has forced Washington state government to make more and larger payouts on claims for child fatalities and near-fatalities. This has become the fastest-growing part of the state operating budget as well as a statewide tragedy. SB 5942 would have made things far worse by eliminating the oversight responsibilities of the Department of Children, Youth and Families (DCYF) Oversight Board. Ironically, the bill also would have changed the name to the DCYF Accountability Board.
- SB 5945 (Sponsor: Hasegawa): This would have changed the “Three Strikes Law” so that rapes, murders, robberies and assaults with a deadly weapon would not count if they were committed when the offender was a juvenile. It would have allowed the man who murdered the 80-year-old dog walker in Seattle to avoid life in prison, despite having a long history of violence, because his conviction would have only counted as strike two. Twenty-four current prisoners serving life in prison would lose a strike and could petition for resentencing.
Often, we can only shake our heads at some of the bills introduced in Olympia. As Republicans continue to fight against additional bad legislation, I’m glad to share these early victories with you.
At the end of the legislative session, I will share a longer status list of bills — good and bad.
My Podcast: Fentanyl, Families, and the Fight for Child Safety
This week on my podcast, Fostering Change Washington’s Jamie Williams and I discuss stalled child protection bills and the urgent need to update Washington’s child endangerment laws. We explore the fentanyl crisis, legislative roadblocks, and how citizens can push for accountability to protect vulnerable children from drug-exposed environments.
Lives Lost, Billions Paid: The Costly Toll of State Negligence
Mismanagement by state agencies has played a role in the deaths and near-deaths of many Washington children and put other residents at risk.
Opioid overdose is a big culprit, which is why I again sponsored SB 5071, which would have added fentanyl to the list of drugs in the Child Endangerment Act. For the fourth time, the bill has failed to move through the House, despite strong bipartisan support in the Senate.
It’s a mystery why House Democrats will not pass such a simple bill to protect children from accidental overdose.
If you need convincing about the importance of this legislation, read “Lives Lost, Billions Paid: The Costly Toll of State Negligence” on the Senate Republican website.
