Life in Washington is too expensive for many families
Record homelessness, lack of childcare, high fuel costs and increasing food insecurity are hurting Washington
#UnaffordableWA
Food, fuel, rent, childcare…EVERYTHING is more expensive thanks to inflation. But another culprit is government regulation Democrats have burdened various industries with — costs that get passed along to consumers. The unnecessarily complicated permitting process, for example, not only makes building a home take longer, it makes it more expensive. Home prices have skyrocketed, as have rents.
We must remove burdensome regulations that are making it nearly impossible for many to own a home. We must lower the costs that are driving people into living on the street. And we must find ways to provide a meaningful leg up so people can afford to live indoors, heat their homes, feed their families and ensure their children are safe while parents are at work.
“Inflation is the number one concern nationwide,” said Senate Caucus Chair Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake. “People are struggling with higher prices for food, housing, transportation and home-heating fuel. Overregulation, heavy taxation and supply chain problems are making it harder for people, especially those with lower incomes, to feed and house their families. The majority doesn’t seem to grasp that business owners must pass along the increased costs of more regulation and higher taxes onto the consumers – you, me and the single mother struggling to put food on her table pay dearly for their inflationary policies. Even the new $0.80 hourly increase in the minimum wage will be passed on to the people. Someone who might receive that increase will end up paying for it through higher prices.”
We will fight to:
- Increase the inventory of housing people can afford
- Reform policies that make renting or buying a home more expensive and more difficult
- Block efforts to impose a state income tax
- Prevent car and home fuel prices from being inflated by ineffective, misguided energy policies
Key Bills:
- SB 5027 (Fortunato): Promoting housing affordability
- SB 5224 (Wilson, J.): Establishes performance requirements for housing service providers
- SB 5279 (Wilson, J.): Expanding a sales and use tax deferral program for affordable housing to include structures initially used as temporary employee housing
- SB 5037 (Wilson, L.) (Power WA): Ensuring that the Washington state energy code may not prohibit the use of natural gas in buildings
- SB 5043 (Short) (Power WA): Recognizes that power plants that comply with the state greenhouse gas emissions performance standard are consistent with Washington’s long-term policy for electricity
- SB 5166 (Boehnke): Reauthorizing the business and occupation tax deduction for cooperative finance organizations
- SB 5168 (Boehnke) (Power WA): Modernizing the energy independent act to avoid regulatory duplication and overlap with other laws
- SB 5345 (Schoesler): Exempting certain public school buildings from the state energy performance standard
- SB 5362 (MacEwen) (Power WA): Advancing the due date for the Department of Ecology’s report on the effects of the clean fuels program
OPINION: The homes people need can be built sooner — if government would just get out of the way (Sen. John Braun/The Chronicle)
Listen: Why homes in Washington are expensive
Listen: Looming 2023 tax hikes exacerbate the affordability crisis
Watch: Returning Affordability
Read relevant articles in the press
