Tracy Ellis:
It’s the elephant in the dome. The official podcast of the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus. I’m Tracy Ellis with Senate Republican Leader John Braun, and this is budget week.
It’s a very busy week, and that’s why we’re in Senator Braun’s office today instead of the studio. But the budgets came out, and we will focus on the main one: the operating budget.
It’s interesting because I remember when the Senate budget, the Democratic budget lead on the operating budget, said, hey, don’t come asking me for any money this year because there’s going to be no increases. We’re just, you know, we’ve got a budget situation here where it’s just steady as she goes.
But it seems like the proposed budget from Senate Democrats is growing. Is that right?
Senator John Braun:
Yeah. That’s right. I mean, that’s exactly what was said before session. And the budget was released a few days ago—actually was voted out of committee last night.
Big picture: It’s an 80‑billion‑dollar budget. It grew by 2 billion from the biennial budget put in place last year. So in spite of claims it did not grow, it is growing.
Now, in fairness, some of that growth is them trying to fix some of the infirmities that were in the budget they passed last year—where they didn’t recognize some of the real costs that were out there, like pension costs, tort liability costs, long‑term IT costs. So it’s a mixed bag.
But the reality is, they’re spending 2 billion more of the taxpayers’ money than they were planning to spend last year.
Tracy Ellis:
Down the road, they’re actually—I mean, I don’t know if they say this—but it looks like they’re depending on that income tax that hasn’t even passed off the House floor yet. It’s certainly not law. And it’s going to face legal challenges, and also probably an initiative at some point. But they’re already counting on that revenue right down the line.
Senator John Braun:
That’s right. It’s part of the four‑year balance. And so you understand, if this passes—and we’re fighting hard to stop it—if it passes, it won’t go into place. The first year that you’d pay that income tax would be in 2029, which is the end of the next biennium.
But they spend most of that money it brings in within that short period into the 2027–2029 biennium. It brings in, I think, close to 3 billion dollars, and they spend a good portion of that.
Tracy Ellis:
One of the things I know in talking with different senators: there is a big concern about this one‑time money being used for ongoing programs. So you give money in, and it’s like getting a bonus at work and then buying a car that has payments every month. How are you going to pay the payments every month because of that bonus? That would be an example of one‑time money being used for ongoing spending.
Senator John Braun:
Yeah, I mean, this is one of the—in my view—the two big, big bad things in this bill. It wildly overspends from existing revenue. Existing revenue is still about the same, and it is growing. By the way, we’re not in a recession. Revenue is growing, but it’s going to be about 75 billion dollars over the next two years.
The Democrats are proposing to spend 80 billion, so they’re spending roughly 5 billion more than we’re taking in from the taxpayers. And they’re paying for that by raiding the rainy‑day fund—not just what’s in it now, but also taking all the money that will come into it during the rest of the biennium. It’s almost another billion dollars.
And then they’ve got this kind of magical thing. They just say the executive is going to save 800 million dollars. No details—no how, where, when. But you’re going to magically save 800 million. It’s a complete, made‑up government budget trick.
The boldness is shocking, frankly, that you would just make up an 800‑million‑dollar magical savings and pretend that will make your budget balance. It’s stunning.
Tracy Ellis:
The income tax—again, it’s not really taken into consideration until about four years from now, right?
Senator John Braun:
Yeah. And this is very aggressive. And they don’t want to talk about it. But even the Department of Revenue—it’s on their site—said they’re not sure they can get it in place this fast.
They have to essentially build a whole new agency to track income. We’ve never done this in Washington before. It’s very complicated. Yes, they’ll get some information from the federal government through the IRS, but it’s a ton of organization to put together.
If they do that—and I’m skeptical; hopefully it won’t pass or it’ll get thrown out in the courts or the people won’t do it—but if it were to go forward, the soonest would be to collect tax in 2029 for any income in 2028.
Tracy Ellis:
So in 2029, will there be extra money for education at that point? Because the Democrats keep saying that this income tax will help fund education.
Senator John Braun:
Yeah, that’s—I mean, it’s just a show, right? The bill couldn’t be more clear. Now, they have an intent section. The intent section, just to be clear, is not law. It’s just, “Hey, we think this is why we want to do this.”
The law in that bill—there is nothing about this money going to education. It entirely goes to the general fund, which can be spent on anything.
And it’s important to know: if you go back for the last eight years, when Democrats have had the majority, education has grown by about 54%, which is exactly the same number as median wage growth. Everything else has grown by 125%—over twice as fast.
So what makes you think that if we give them a bunch more money, now—this time—they’ll really spend it on education? We didn’t last time, or the time before that, or the time before that. But this time we’re really going to do it for education. But no, we don’t want to put it in the bill. I mean, come on.
Do they think the people in the state of Washington are fools?
Tracy Ellis:
That’s four years down the line we’re talking about. Maybe there’ll be more money for education. But what about right now? Education is the number‑one priority for the legislature when it comes to budgets. It certainly gets the lion’s share of the budget by a long shot. How is education being fully funded at this point in this proposed budget?
Senator John Braun:
It’s not. I think there’s a mixed question there. In some places the funding is really good. Compensation for teachers, as an example—I think we should pay our teachers well. We do pay our teachers well. We are among the best in the country. At least one study I’ve seen says we are the best in the country.
But there are a lot of other things where there’s work to do. Special education—I’ve worked for many years to get more funding there. Learning assistance programs for students who are struggling for any number of reasons.
It’s really difficult to get money into education and siloed for that use. Instead, it’s been bargained away for compensation. And it’s not going to the intended use. And as a result, we’re not delivering the education our children need or deserve.
Tracy Ellis:
Well, how do you remedy that situation?
Senator John Braun:
A couple things have to happen. One, the legislature has to be more bold in putting restrictions on how the money can be used. They’ve not been willing to do that because every time they do, their friends from the teachers union show up and say, “No, we don’t want those restrictions”—because they want to bargain on it.
The legislature just has to get firm. If you’re really going to do it, you’ve got to give the local school districts some backstop. They’re completely outgunned when it comes to negotiations.
We have to put hard language in that prevents misuse of that money. The union is opposed to that—they’ve got a job. Their job is to negotiate for their members. I don’t begrudge them that. But our job is to make sure our children get a proper education, especially the kids that are really struggling.
Historically, when we say money is for learning assistance, most of the time it doesn’t make it to that program. It gets bargained into more compensation. We have to put stronger safeguards in place to isolate that money for the specific use for those children who truly need additional programming.
Tracy Ellis:
That’s Senator John Braun. I’m Tracy Ellis. This is The Elephant in the Dome, the official podcast of the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus.