Note: The following op-ed was published in the Stevens County Times, April 2025 edition.

By Sen. Shelly Short, Rep. Hunter Abell and Rep. Andrew Engell

In Olympia, a $7 billion shortfall has become an excuse for a tax increase of more than $17 billion. You heard that right. Majority Democrats in the Legislature are calling for a tax increase at least $10 billion bigger than the problem itself. And the craziest thing about it? We don’t need to be raising taxes in the first place.

Welcome to this year’s budget debate, the most outrageous debate about taxes and spending this state has ever seen. This is the main event of our 2025 session, and the argument will occupy our full attention between now and our scheduled adjournment on April 27.

Normally when Olympia finds itself in a budget crisis, it is brought on by circumstances beyond our control – a national recession or a Wall Street crash. This one is entirely the result of unsustainable spending by our counterparts in the Democratic majority.

And rather than correcting our trajectory, our colleagues want to enact the largest tax increase in Washington history, so they can keep right on spending and digging our hole deeper.

Unfortunately, they have the votes. As Republicans, let us say none of this makes any sense to us.

• We have plenty of money coming in. That’s not the problem. Even though state economists warn of a slowdown, state revenues will increase $4.5 billion over the next four years. The problem is that our colleagues want to spend more than we are taking in.
• The deficit is in the $7 billion range. That’s the amount we need, in addition to projected revenues, to maintain all the programs we have on the books. Our friends say the deficit is substantially higher, somewhere between $12 billion and $16 billion. But they are including public-employee pay raises and other big new spending we simply can’t afford.
• The mistakes that got us here were painfully obvious. State spending has doubled in the last decade. At first we had the money, because our economy was booming. But since 2019, our colleagues have spent about $9 billion more than we had coming in. They raided reserves, used one-time revenues to create permanent obligations, and employed tried-and-true accounting tricks that let them spend even more.
• The tax increases on the table are among the most damaging this state has ever considered. Some are old standbys, like increases in business taxes. Or giving local governments more authority to raise property taxes, more than tripling the rate of growth, raising the prospect that people will be taxed out of their homes. Most worrisome of all is a first-of-its-kind “wealth tax,” sort of a property tax on stocks, bonds and other investments, that would chase job creators to other states and ensure the next Boeing, Microsoft or Amazon would take root someplace else.
• We can balance the budget without new taxes. That’s the kicker. None of this is necessary. If we avoid big new non-emergency spending and enact obvious efficiencies, we can bring that $7 billion deficit down to zero. It’s that simple.

We underscored this point last month when Senate Republicans released a budget proposal showing it can be done, with no harmful cuts to state programs. This proposal even found a way to boost education spending.

And in the House, we are seeing a strange dynamic. Our new governor, Democrat Bob Ferguson, makes the obvious point that we need to have an honest conversation about how we got in this mess in the first place. Democratic leaders have responded to this mild criticism by barring the governor and his staff from entering the House chamber — perhaps to prevent the spread of fiscally responsible thinking.

Being in the minority at a time like this is a little like being a passenger in an airplane that is hurtling out of control. Spending is on autopilot and the folks in the cockpit don’t seem interested in changing course. Our best chance is to raise our voices and hope they will hear us up front, or heaven help the eight million Washingtonians who are riding with us in the economy section.

Sen. Shelly Short, R-Addy, Rep. Hunter Abell, R-Inchelium, and Rep. Andrew Engell, R-Colville, represent the 7th Legislative District.