Do you want higher taxes to feed Olympia’s insatiable spending? I don’t!
Five new tax bills will be heard on Monday in the Ways and Means Committee and now is the time to make your voice heard.
Right now you have an opportunity to sign in, speak up and be heard.
A critical part of the legislative session has arrived – when among the flurry of bills on a variety of topics, the focus quickly pivots to the budget. The Senate Republicans jump started the conversation by rolling out our budget proposal on Tuesday. It’s an honest budget that invests in our priorities, makes government work smarter, and balances without playing budget games, raiding our rainy-day fund or increasing the tax burden on Washington families. You can learn more about this commonsense approach below.
Today the Senate unanimously approved legislation from Sen. Keith Wagoner that would expand the number of available long-term care beds for veterans, simultaneously helping to address Washington’s homelessness crisis while also alleviating the pressure on the medical foster home system.
“So many of our nation’s men and women in uniform serve and sacrifice for this nation, only to come home and find that as they age, they are left behind – without support and too often left to face serious physical or mental health challenges on the streets, without the comfort, security and dignity of a home,” said Wagoner, R-Sedro-Woolley.
“This is an important bill for helping make sure that our veterans are able to age with dignity in place. At the same time, it also relieves the pressure on resources for other people who are not veterans. This is a federal program, administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs, that has been proven to be successful.”
Under Wagoner’s Senate Bill 5200, the state would grant an exemption from the Washington adult family home (AFH) licensure requirements to a medical foster home (MFH) that is under the oversight and annually reviewed by the VA, and when care is provided exclusively to three or fewer veterans.
The bill also requires that the operator of the care facility and its caregivers comply with state laws, including any required training, certification, and background checks. Veterans admitted under this measure would also be added to the state list of vulnerable adults.
Wagoner thanked his colleagues for their unanimous support for his bill, and said that the measure, when approved, will create a win-win for Washington’s veterans and the state, as well as reducing the pressure to find MFH beds and the duplication of state regulatory efforts.
“I think there’re about 140 of these types of homes across the nation in over a dozen states,” said Wagoner. “Providing these waivers will help ensure that we are not doubling up on work and effort at the Department of Health.
“Our primary concern is making sure our aging veterans get the best care possible, with caregivers that meet the most thorough and vigorous standards. Unfortunately, there are several rules in place that actually make it harder to take care of our homeless veterans. This measure will remove some of those barriers and provide another tool in the box to make sure that veterans get the high standard of care that they have earned and deserve in their later years.”
SB 5200 now heads to the House of Representatives for its consideration.
One of the bills that is at the center of debate in Olympia this week is my measure addressing the governor’s emergency executive powers (SB 5434). I had worked hard on this measure, and the original version had bipartisan support, including from Governor Ferguson.
However, the bill was gutted by the majority party in committee; only the title remained, and now it’s on a measure that is even weaker than current law. It would allow emergency declarations by the governor to remain in force indefinitely, and without any input from the people through your elected representatives.
The Center Square published a thorough report on what happened to my emergency-powers reform legislation. You may read it below.
We have now wrapped up 26 days of the legislative session, or almost exactly one-quarter of the 105 days allowed. The full Senate met on Wednesday to approve several (mostly) non-controversial bills, but the majority of our time was focused on working legislation at the committee level.
The big news of the week was the Senate debate on parental rights.
In 2024, more than 454,000 people signed the Initiative to the Legislature, and the Senate approved it unanimously. It passed the House 82-15. Since the Legislature approved the initiative, it did not show up on the ballot during the Nov. 5, 2024, general election.
Just one year later, Democrats are now trying to gut the initiative through Senate Bill 5181. The measure, which passed the Senate on a party-line vote, strips away several key provisions of the parental rights law, and even includes an emergency clause, which denies Washingtonians their right of referendum.
The 2025 Legislative Session is underway, and there is reason for cautious optimism. In contrast to outgoing Governor Inslee’s partisan farewell address, Governor Ferguson delivered a pragmatic, collaborative message. Frankly, I was astonished as the Governor outlined reasonable proposals that align with my own values.
Citing issues from affordability to crime, he painted a realistic picture of problems faced by Washingtonians. He also highlighted commonsense Republican proposals he plans to actively support — like executive powers reform (legislation which I just recently introduced) and increased support for law enforcement. Finally, he declared that he was here not to defend government, but to reform it!
We have big problems to solve in Washington; solutions come easier when working together. I welcome the Governor’s stated intentions, but will be carefully watching for follow-through and leadership.
Republicans in the Washington Senate are calling a property tax measure backed by Democrats “the single most destructive and far-reaching bill of the 2024 session.”
At least that’s how Sen. Keith Wagoner, R-Sedro Woolley, and a member of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, described Senate Bill 5770 in a Wednesday news release.
SB 5770 would allow local governments across the state to increase property taxes by up to 3% a year without voter approval. The law currently allows only non-voter approved property tax increases of 1% a year.
Members of the Senate Republican Caucus held a press conference Thursday morning at the state Capitol, with more than 50 concerned community members filling the room.
In early March, Washington state lawmakers approved a measure that came to the legislature in the form of a citizen initiative. Under the policy, law enforcement officers again may give chase when there is reasonable suspicion a person has violated a law. The policy, which will go into effect in June, allows individual police agencies to impose stricter pursuit rules.
“In June, I think we’re going to see an immediate effect on how crime is treated in Washington state, and we’re going to bend that curve downward,” said Washington state Sen. Keith Wagoner, a Republican who voted for the measure, in an interview.
…“It wasn’t great policy, kind of a knee-jerk reaction,” Wagoner said. “The bad guys were waiting at the starting line and there was a starting gun, and auto theft just skyrocketed and crimes associated with that took off.”
In 2022, the number of reported motor vehicle thefts jumped by more than a third over the previous year, according to the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs’ annual crime reports. The Evergreen State had one of the highest rates of motor vehicle thefts in 2022 compared with other states, according to FBI crime data, a consistent trend since at least 1997.
The bill would require firearm dealers to install onerous security features and superfluous alarm and surveillance systems, and adopt redundant storage and excessively burdensome record-keeping practices. It also would set minimum insurance-coverage requirements and require employees to undergo yearly background checks.
