from Caleb Heimlich, Chair, WSRP
The Legislative Session ended on Sunday April 28th, with a flurry of bad bills. Democrats voted to implement a new payroll tax, taxes on small business, doctors, banks, real estate transactions, and opened the door to much higher property taxes. They also passed policies that will lead to higher utility rates and higher gas prices. All while we are experiencing record revenue growth. The State budget has swelled by $5 Billion with new revenue, but the Democrats insisted on raising taxes by an additional $2 Billion.
And to add insult to injury, they did this under the clouds of darkness. Pushing through tax bills at 4AM while the people of Washington were sleeping and couldn’t comment. That arrogant dismissive display for the concerns of the voters of Washington State shouldn’t stand. We posted a FB video that has now received over 13K views! https://www.facebook.com/WAGOP/videos/1482643421866776/. Thanks to all the county parties and individuals that have shared that video to help increase the reach and get out the word on what the Democrats did in the dark of night!
Inslee Trip: We have launched a brand new website called www.insleetrip.com. We will hand deliver copies of the petitions to Governor Inslee’s office. Please share the link! People are really enjoying the gif of Inslee flying around the country on his plane, while we the taxpayers are forced to subsidize his security travel costs.
Capital Gains Income Tax Efforts: In the midst of the negative news coming out of Legislative Session, there was one bright spot, the Democrats did not force through a bill to create an income tax on capital gains. We organized a significant campaign to oppose that effort and succeeded in applying pressure to certain swing district Democratic Senators.
