State Budget Proposals Are the Largest in WA State History!

The 2021 Washington State Legislative session is nearing the home stretch with about  30 days to go  Hold on to your wallet.  The House and Senate spending plans and priorities are out on the table and it's a very big table!

Chris Cargill is the Eastern Washington Director of the Washington Policy Center, a conservative think tank with a mission "to promote sound public policy based on free-market solutions."

Chris keeps his eye on the legislature for us and as such he has a regular segment at 7:40 Monday mornings on KIT's The Morning News radio show.  Today's focus was on the much improved State Budget.  How improve?  What was expected to be more than a 3 billon dollar shortfall is now, well, as KUOW reports, Senate Republican leader John Braun says, “Unlike what we thought six or eight months ago, we are flush in every possible way.”   But that doesn't seem to matter to the state's Democrats who are proposing record levels of spending and the extra taxes necessary to pull that off!

Cargill says the Senate has proposed the largest budget in state history...up 13% at just over 59 Billion dollars.  House Democrats suggest 58.3 billion is a number that works for them.  The budget numbers are substantial, significant, but are they sustainable?  The budget is up almost 50% in 6 years, so knock knock - who's there? State Income Tax...State income tax who?  Well for now only those at the higher income levels ...but how long before the rest of us are folded in?

Passage of the capital gains tax and a carbon tax are assumed in these proposed budgets.

Cargill says a lot of money is set aside for studies including the concept of universal income and the dietary habits of salmon eating seals and sea lions. Oh Boy.

Here's Chris...