Governor vetoes portion of new budget...but he could have gone farther

OLYMIA–The COVID-19 situation leads to budget vetoes. The last day, under our state constitution, for the governor to act on legislation passed during the 2020 session was Friday April, 10. Because his stay-at-home order clearly is going to mean a big hit to state revenues, it makes sense to lower the cost of state government as much as possible, and as soon as possible. Governor Inslee took a step toward that today by vetoing nearly 150-line items in the supplemental budget before signing it.

The budget was passed March 11 and raised spending by $975 million from the budget adopted in 2019. Our budget leader, Senator Braun, said a case could have been made for vetoing every bit of new spending that doesn't support the state's COVID-19 response. That would have saved more than $700 million – money that could be redeployed toward public-health or economic-recovery measures down the way, or put toward lessening the budget deficit we will likely face in 2021.

Inslee's vetoes reduce spending by $230 million in this cycle. They cut items like reimbursements for primary-care doctors and early-childhood learning, money to hire K-12 guidance counselors and $50 million for what was being called "climate resiliency." Other casualties included a task force to look (yet again) at the creation of a state bank; a work group to study the Growth Management Act (which is overdue for reform); body scanners to keep contraband out of state prisons; and the creation of a state "office of diversity and equity".

Despite the vetoes, the budget growth for 2019-21 compared to 2017-19 is still nearly 20%. Even with the reductions made by the governor's vetoes today, state spending has wildly outpaced wage growth–especially since Democrats regained full control of the lawmaking process in 2018.

The new reality: legislative leaders meet chamber members over video. It's customary for me as Senate Republican leader to be invited to pre-session and post-session discussions about legislative issues, but in keeping with the unusual times we're in, I'm now doing so by remote video–and a lot of conference calls.

A good example took place Tuesday morning. I participated by video in a forum hosted by the East King Chamber Coalition, a group of chambers of commerce on the east side of King County. Joining me were Rep. J.T. Wilcox of Yelm, leader of the House Republican Caucus, Sen. Andy Billig of Spokane, leader of the Senate Democratic Caucus; and Rep. Larry Springer of Kirkland, deputy leader in the House Democratic Caucus.

We discussed how schools are responding to the COVID-19 situation, and question of equity between districts because of the disparities in the technology available to students. We also spent quite a bit of time on what government can do to help with business recovery, such as rolling back or deferring tax payments (some deferments are already being offered).

Since I have experience with two previous recessions, I expressed early government action to cost-cutting by $1 would exponentially equal a savings of $1.50 by the time next January's 2021 session.

The importance of increasing broadband access in our state, especially rural Washington, is exemplified by the dominance for educational and business usage during this pandemic. If your community has broadband, it makes doing business easier than in a community that is still waiting for reliable internet service. The fact that schools are being required to offer online instruction as part of the state's coronavirus response is proof that it has value from an educational as well as an economic standpoint.

The governor's announcement extending the stay-at-home order through May 4, mandating another month of closures and isolation, makes it even more important to address some of the hypocritical parts of the "essential business" list. The most obvious example involves residential homebuilding. It simply isn't credible to suggest a construction crew can work safely on the government-housing project but can't work just as safely on a new home across the road. That kind of inconsistency doesn't do much to win the public's trust.

The Supreme Court rejected Seattle's effort to impose an income tax. In the midst of the coronavirus response and the economic fallout comes good news for hardworking taxpayers. The high court sided with the state appeals court to uphold a King County Superior Court finding that Seattle's income tax is illegal.