The Herald-Republic suggests governing won out over politicking during the just-concluded legislative session (“State Democrats’ focus on governing pays off,” April 3). In support of that, it includes a few glib quotes from a post-session meeting with Democratic legislators and text bullets that read like they were lifted from Democratic talking points.
Having witnessed the Democrats’ actions firsthand, as Senate Republican leader, I reach the opposite conclusion: Time after time, politics came ahead of good policy. At our post-session meeting with the Herald-Republic editorial board, Yakima’s longtime Sen. Curtis King and I described how opportunities to do right by the people of Washington were missed due to the majority’s misguided priorities. For the benefit of readers, let’s run through them again.
Start with public safety. Bipartisan progress came on one important front, with new laws intended to increase the safety of Indigenous people. Beyond that, Democrats struggled to undo their anti-police policy mistakes from 2021, which make it easier for lawbreakers to avoid being pursued and detained.
Republicans provided the votes needed to pass House Bill 2037, when the majority couldn’t deliver enough of its own. That new law clarifies when and how much physical force may be used by officers against someone. We would have done the same for Senate Bill 5919; the majority’s left wing repeatedly blocked a final vote. As a result, the criminal-friendly restrictions on vehicle pursuits will continue, for at least another year.
Then there’s Senate Bill 5927. This reasonable, bipartisan bill from Sen. Jim Honeyford of Sunnyside would have added a year to the prison sentence for robbing a cannabis retailer. State law already requires that for those who rob pharmacies. While every Democratic senator joined us in supporting the bill, the House majority wouldn’t allow a vote. Is that inconsistency an example of governing, or politics?
Along with public safety, the affordability crisis in our state was a Republican priority for 2022. Before the session, people across Washington were already facing soaring costs for food, housing, energy and gas — while state government was anticipating an enormous budget surplus. To Republicans, the surplus provided generational opportunities for long-overdue tax relief. We proposed a permanent property-tax reduction, a sales-tax reduction, a temporary gas-tax suspension and more. Any would have consumed a relatively small proportion of a surplus that grew to $15 billion in February.
In the end, the majority did nothing to let the average Washington family keep more of its own money. Three-fourths of the surplus went toward growing government. A Republican proposal to eliminate the sales tax on diapers made it into the Senate budget, but that was a tease. Our Democratic colleagues kept it out of the final budget.
Knowing how pandemic-related restrictions and failures caused a loss of faith in government, we also made the restoration of public trust a priority for this year. One Democrat senator parroted that when speaking with the Herald-Republic, claiming trust is the “most important objective.” However, actions speak louder.
The Democrats’ actions show they shouldn’t be trusted to provide for education. When Republicans last had a hand in the budget, in 2017, more than 50% went to K-12 education, upholding the Legislature’s paramount constitutional duty. The investment in K-12 had fallen to 47% in the majority’s budget only a year ago; the new supplemental budget adds $5 billion in spending yet slashes nearly $500 million from K-12. Its share is now 43%, setting the stage for another McCleary-style lawsuit.
Also, our colleagues had an easy opportunity to regain the people’s trust by reforming the state’s inequitable 1969 emergency-powers law. Instead, they ignored Republican proposals, caved to the governor by blocking a final vote on their own do-nothing bill, then blamed their lack of action on Republicans. Was that governing, or politics?
The newspaper quoted the Senate majority leader’s claim that Democrats’ “first choice” is to try being bipartisan. That’s highly questionable, considering how our transportation leader, Sen. King, was left out of crafting the new transportation package — through which Democrats are imposing billions of dollars in unpopular, regressive fees. Who took the partisan approach? The senator making that other claim, about the importance of trust.
If the Democrats had indeed focused on governing, this session would have been better for Washington families and employers. Instead, politics won out too many times. The people shouldn’t let it happen again.
Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, represents Washington’s 20th Legislative District, which meets Yakima County at the summit of White Pass. He became leader of the Senate Republican Caucus in 2020.
