Mike Padden

We received disturbing news from our state auditor’s office last week: its findings in an audit of the state Employment Security Department. It now appears that ESD downplayed the extent of the unemployment-insurance fraud it allowed, and repeatedly failed to properly respond to Washingtonians who needed the agency to deliver...

Today the Senate voted 48-0 to accept simple changes made by the House of Representatives to Sen. Mike Padden’s measure to help people with hearing impairments by increasing the availability of closed captioning on televisions in public places. The bill, which passed the House unanimously earlier this month, now heads...

Sometimes, the bills that survive the deadlines are not the best indicator of our state’s values – instead, you look at what fails to gain enough support to move forward. An example is the life-affirming defeat of legislation that would have expanded access to assisted suicide in our state. Due...

Uniform Public Expression Protection Act would restore critical free-speech protections The House of Representatives voted 97-1 on Friday to approve Sen. Mike Padden’s measure to help protect citizens, whistleblowers and members of the news media from frivolous lawsuits aimed at stifling freedom of speech and the discussion of legitimate public...

Measure would reduce barriers to affordable home ownership Today the House of Representatives unanimously passed Sen. Mike Padden’s measure to help increase the supply of affordable housing by removing barriers to condominium construction. “This is tremendous news for both homebuilders and those looking for more affordable homeownership,” said Padden, R-Spokane...

Today the House unanimously passed Sen. Mike Padden’s measure to let members of cooperative associations cast votes electronically. The bill also passed the Senate unanimously in February. “More than a year into the pandemic, many businesses and associations are still having difficulty in safely and regularly meeting to conduct their...

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...

• Bill would prohibit discrimination based on COVID vaccination status • Proposals for ‘COVID passports,’ employer actions show urgency of issue • Leaves decision a matter of personal choice Discrimination based on vaccination status is a civil rights issue, and should be prohibited by law, say members of the Senate...

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...