Silence: Still no word on budget negotiations
How much will the 2025-27 operating budget increase state spending and taxes?
How much will the 2025-27 operating budget increase state spending and taxes?
That’s a good question. We’re not sure yet what the full scope of the budget and its taxes will be because as of April 23, the majority has been conducting secret negotiations for 20 days and has not provided us, the press or the public with any news.
What you can bet on is that the budget will spend more than it should, given that we had to deal with a multibillion-dollar shortfall. And judging by the tax bills Democrats passed last weekend, the budget will include BILLIONS in new taxes.
It’s important to note that $5 billion of what Democrats have proposed is in local taxes alone. During any other year, that would get more attention than it has during year when Democrats are dropping new tax bills right up until the last week of session.
The governor recently vetoed a clause in a Democrat bill that would prevent it from being repealed through referendum. Could he veto some or all of the budget?
It’s unlikely that Gov. Ferguson would veto the entire budget, but he COULD do so.
As soon as we have a summary of what is in the proposed budget and a link to the budget proposal itself, we’ll send them your way so you will know what your legislators are voting on.
Increasing property taxes via local levies
Democrats abandoned their effort this year to increase the annual allowable rate by which state and local governments can increase your taxes every year without voter approval.
That’s a victory!
However, Democrats are now focusing on increasing local school levies.
Returning to an over-reliance on local levies for school funding will throw us right back into the situation where schools in wealthier areas come out ahead while rural and lower-income areas are left behind.
This is exactly the kind of inequity in education behind the K-12 education funding case McCleary v. State of Washington more than a decade ago, and it will land us back in court for McCleary 2.0.
Voters have to approve school levies. What’s the problem with voters raising property taxes on themselves to fund schools?
Scenario #1: Let’s say every district passes a school levy one year. Those who live in wealthier areas will only have to raise their property taxes by pennies to generate a significant amount of money for their schools. Those in less populated areas or in areas with lower property values and lower incomes will have to increase their taxes by several dollars, and still wouldn’t raise as much.
Scenario #2: Now, let’s say that only the levies in the wealthy areas pass because those in the other areas can’t afford the increase and vote their levies down. The inequity that would have occurred if all the levies had passed would increase exponentially. The learning gap between the rich and the poor and between the urban and the rural would widen. Hispanic students in poorer Eastern Washington districts would be particularly disadvantaged.
This is why relying on local levies is unconstitutional. According to the law, the quality of a child’s education should not depend on their zip code.
Is McCleary 2.0 the real goal?
It’s hard to say what is the goal of this latest push for higher levy authority. A McCleary 2.0 decision would provide an excuse to push for tens of billions of dollars in taxes. It could even result in another attempt by the majority to amend our state constitution to allow a graduated income tax — something Washingtonians have voted down 11 times.
Majority budget writers need to increase the percentage of our budget that is spent on K-12 so it grows in proportion to the size of the budget. When Republicans were in the majority, more than 50% of the budget was dedicated to basic education.
For more information about how detrimental this bill will be, read the recent statement from Senate Republican Leader John Braun (20th Legislative District) and Sen. Nikki Torres (15th Legislative District), who is our assistant lead on the operating budget.
You can also learn more from Sen. Braun’s appearance this week on Undivided with Brandi Kruse.
Who are the “villains” in the tax bills?
During the debate on a bill to increase the sales tax on certain services (Senate Bill 5814), Sen. Drew MacEwen, R-Shelton, requested permission to read from a document produced by the Senate Democrats about their various tax increase ideas. It was accidentally sent to Republicans before the legislative session. The passage is enlightening.
It says, “We have to identify the villain and the problem blocking our progress, and then we can take action to solve the issue.”
“Okay, so who are the villains identified in this tax bill? Behavioral health, childcare facilities,
long-term care workers, temporary staff, dentists?
Are those the villains here?”
Sen. MacEwen went on to share that people are calling and writing to his office to say they can’t take any more taxes. All of our offices are receiving similar messages from constituents.
People simply can’t afford to send the government any more of the money they need to live on, no matter what the government plans to spend it on. It’s not that they don’t care about the people the state provides for. They don’t want to become someone who needs the state to provide for them.
If you don’t want to pay the higher taxes that are headed your way, or the higher prices
that will result, does that make YOU the villain?
This could have been an easy budget year with ZERO NEW TAXES if Democrats had accepted the balanced budget proposal cowritten and cosponsored by Sen. Chris Gildon and Sen. Nikki Torres. It doesn’t cut services, it doesn’t “stiff” state employees, and it doesn’t make things worse for Washington.