For weeks, the Legislature’s majority Democrats have been keeping the people of Washington in the dark about the new state operating budget.
That’s unacceptable, but it would be even worse if the Democrats could also hide their efforts to hit the people with the largest tax increase in state history. Because they can’t, we know what to watch for as the 2025 legislative session moves through its final phase.
The Senate and House Democrats proposed separate tax packages in March but never took votes on any of them — although the Senate bill to completely remove the 1% cap on the annual growth of property-tax rates quickly made history. It’s the most unpopular bill to ever come before a legislative committee, with more than 43,000 people registering their opposition online.
With just 11 days left in our 105-day session, Democrats from the two chambers introduced a new tax package. It would cost Washington residents and employers an estimated $18.5 billion over the next four years, with $5 billion of that being local taxes.
That set the stage for a meeting of the Senate Ways and Means Committee, which was historic and almost surreal because of the staggering combined cost of the bills before us. They included all five of the tax bills introduced just two days earlier, plus three bills from the Senate Democrats’ original $21 billion tax package — including the controversial, so-called “wealth” tax.
In a matter of hours, Democrats on the committee had given a green light to a record amount of new taxes. To top it off, they also approved their bill to cut higher education funding, which will function like a tax increase on Washington’s middle-income families by forcing state-run colleges and universities to increase tuition.
There’s no predicting which of these new taxes will come before the full Senate in the remaining days of the session, but the majority is leaving itself a lot of options — a veritable buffet of tax increases from which the insatiable spenders across the political aisle may choose.
The speed at which these tax bills have moved is not just a shocking display of partisan power. It also exposes the double-speak of the Democrats who for months have claimed their goal is to make the “wealthy few pay what they owe.”
Senate Bill 5798, the property tax hike that drew so much online opposition prior to its March 31 public hearing, would be costly for property owners and renters at all income levels. It would disproportionately hit the lower-income working families that are already struggling financially.
The same is true for the newer property tax proposals, Senate Bill 5812 and House Bill 2049. These matching bills would triple the cap on the annual growth of property-tax rates — the same thing Democrats have tried the past two years — and add a new jab through a change to school-levy limits.
It’s no wonder hundreds of people from all across Washington assembled on the steps of the Capitol on “Tax Day,” April 15, to emphatically call for the defeat of the Democrats’ property tax bills. They recognize how these proposals represent a threat unlike any other tax hike.
I and many other Republicans gratefully accepted invitations to say a few words at the anti-tax rally about the majority’s latest moves and how to keep fighting against them.
The most surprising of the tax increases brought out by Democrats this past week is a sales tax expansion that would apply to many services, particularly those related to computers and information technology, but also things like home security cameras.
This new sales tax, piled on top of all the other proposals, makes me question whether anything is safe from the wave of new and increased taxes that stands to hit every person in the state.
The proposed sales tax increase also shows how quickly Democrats will flip-flop. A month ago, Senate Democrats made a big deal about proposing a decrease in the state sales tax — that’s right, a decrease — along with the $21 billion of new taxes in their original package.
Republicans suspected at the time that the legislation was just for show. The sponsors could go back home and announce they’d supported a tax relief bill, whether it moved forward or not.
As we could have guessed, the sales tax bill that came before our Ways and Means Committee was not the tax reduction they promised — it was the increase.
It’s misleading for Democrats to continue their “make the wealthy pay” messaging while supporting tax increases that would reach deeper into the pockets of people of all income levels.
However, they have the votes in the Senate and House to force these tax hikes through, all the way to Gov. Bob Ferguson.
That brings us to a question no one would have asked when Jay Inslee, who seemed to love tax increases, was in office: What will happen when these Democrat tax hikes get to the Democrat governor’s desk?
On the eve of our historic Ways and Means committee meeting — the one where Republicans were outvoted on those many billions’ worth of tax bills — Ferguson stepped up for the second time this month to share his budgeting preferences.
After repeating the concern he expressed back on April 1 about the uncertainty surrounding federal funding decisions, the governor eventually got to the bottom line. The new Democrat tax package is “unsustainable” and “too risky,” he said.
Republicans agree. It’s not just the state-level taxes Ferguson cited, but the $5 billion in local taxes that also would hit families hard.
This week’s Democrat tax chaos makes the best budget proposal of the session — the Republican $ave Washington budget — look even better. Filed as Senate Bill 5810, it offers more money for education and law enforcement, requires no tuition increases, wouldn’t raid the rainy day fund, doesn’t make any cuts to important human services, and best of all, needs no new taxes. Not a dime. Zero.
While Republicans appreciate the guidance that continues to come from the governor, the question is whether the legislative majority will do a better job of listening to him in the time that remains in our regular session. Better yet, they should be listening to the people. Being forced into an overtime session because Democrat legislators aren’t listening would be wrong for our state.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.
