State government has never seemed to grow so much, so quickly. Last week, the House and Senate majorities adopted budgets that would spend record amounts of money. Besides draining the rainy-day fund, burning through billions in federal relief dollars, and exhausting enormous budget surpluses, they STILL raise taxes! This is...

Because state government operates on a two-year budget cycle, new operating, transportation and capital budgets must be approved during the 2021 session. Last week, the majority released its three budget proposals, and to the surprise of few the operating-budget proposal relied on unnecessary tax hikes – even though the state...

Today is Day 72 of the 2021 regular session, which is scheduled to last 105 days and end on April 25. The pace of the session has picked up, with Senate bills moving (or dying) in the House, and vice versa. This week, we will see the majority propose its...

One of the most baffling things in this session is the majority’s insistence on raising and creating new taxes. Despite predictions to the contrary, we have continued to see additional revenue come into the state. In the largest positive quarterly forecast change on record, the March forecast released yesterday increased...

The 2021 legislative session is at the halfway mark. We spent the past week voting on legislation, moving toward yesterday’s 5 p.m. deadline for both chambers to pass their own bills – or they are considered off the table for the remainder of the session. …Unfortunately, the very troubling bills...

We’ve just started the eighth week of the legislative session. We are still keeping a busy pace, with several days continuing well into the evening as we take votes on a variety of bills. Many of the measures passed so far are worthwhile and reflect the needs of our state....

Last week the Legislature moved on a number of bills – some good, but unfortunately, many not so good. On February 15, Senate Bill 5438 received a hearing in the Senate labor committee. The measure would create a benefit program for illegal aliens, who are not legally authorized to work...

In this legislative update I will tell you about some of the bills that survived this deadline, including some of my bills to help those with hearing disabilities, protect the public from repeat drunk drivers, increase affordable housing, address the nursing shortage, reform police use of force and defend the...

One of the highlights of the week was the formation of the Senate Freedom Caucus. Three other Republican senators – Doug Ericksen of Ferndale, Phil Fortunato of Auburn, and Jim McCune of Graham – and I officially launched the new caucus at a press conference on Wednesday. A caucus is...