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
Listen: Why homes in Washington are expensive
Listen: Looming 2023 tax hikes exacerbate the affordability crisis
Watch: Returning Affordability
In the Press
Housing:
- Washington’s overfunded public pension system could cost taxpayers, officials say (The Center Square)
- 12th District representatives have concerns about governor’s housing referendum (KOZI Radio)
- ‘Pave the way’: Rep. Jacobsen bills would ease rules to build homes in Washington (The Center Square)
- Design review process could be axed to speed up housing production in Washington state (KUOW Radio)
- This plan would build ‘middle-income’ homes by the Foothills Trail in East Pierce County (Puyallup Herald/The News Tribune)
- 2022 was slowest year for US home sales in nearly a decade (AP/KOMO TV)
- OPINION: If Seattle cares about affordability, why does it make it so hard to add basement apartments? (Eric Fisk, software engineer and public policy nerd/The Seattle Times)
- OPINION: No place like home: Launching a yearlong exploration of regional housing issues (Anna Schlecht is retired from the City of Olympia/The Olympian)\
- Bill to ease Washington’s housing crisis would allow up to fourplex on all residential lots (The Spokesman-Review)
- Middle housing bill begins with more support in Washington Legislature than last time (KUOW Radio)
- Affordable housing legislation introduced in Olympia (Columbia Basin Herald)
- Gov. Inslee: Homelessness is complex, needs help from legislature (MyNorthwest)
- OPINION: Charting a new path toward housing affordability in Washington state (Brad Smith, president and vice chair of Microsoft, and Phyllis Campbell, chairman of JPMorgan Chase, Pacific Northwest/The Seattle Times)
- How WA’s legislature is addressing the housing crisis in 2023 (Crosscut)
- Report: Foreclosure filings expected to reach pre-pandemic levels later this year (Puget Sound Business Journal)
- Packed In: Spokane’s housing supply still limited; short 25,000 housing units (KXLY TV)
- OPINION: WA’s housing crisis requires bold reform. This bill would be transformative (Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, and Rep. Jessica Bateman, D-Olympia/The News Tribune)
- Washington lawmakers aim to work on housing, workforce shortages in upcoming session (The Daily News)
Energy:
- New carbon tax law could be driving costs up (KXLY TV)
- Washington gas prices continue to spike as state readies for carbon auctions (The Center Square)