The following e-newsletter was distributed to Sen. Leonard Christian’s subscribers Feb. 27, 2026. To subscribe to Sen. Christian’s e-newsletters, click here.
Viaducts to nowhere will be connected to Interstate 90 sometime between 2029 and 2031.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
When our grandparents first proposed the North-South Freeway, they were going to finish sometime around 1950. Back in the ‘90s it was supposed to happen any day. This project has been in the works so long that it makes your typical cathedral look like a rush job.
So I am pleased to report that under the new transportation budget announced this week, the North-South Freeway will definitely be finished on time, according to the Department of Transportation. This is supposed to happen sometime during the 2029-2031 biennium. Never mind the fact that work was halted twice last year by a funding interruption and a strike. They’re going to speed things up and make up for lost time.
That’s what DOT is telling us, anyway, and after all the delays we’ve seen on this near-eternal project, I’ll be holding them to it. When the transportation budget was first released, it appeared we lost money because of the delays. But about $125 million in construction expenses were moved to the the 27-29 biennium, and staff says that won’t prevent them from finishing on schedule. Total cost of this phase will be $1.3 billion.
Town hall meeting set for March 28
Mark your calendars for a town hall meeting in Spokane Valley March 28, recapping the events of our 2026 legislative session. The in-person meeting will start at 10 a.m. at CenterPlace Regional Event Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place. I’ll have more to say as the date approaches. I look forward to seeing you!
Public opposition to proposed income tax sets a record
118,421 people sign in against income tax, but majority Democrats already have plans to spend the money
“First they came for the millionaires…” A brief pause for protest before the Tuesday income tax hearing in the House.
We set a record in Olympia this week – or rather, you did. More than a hundred thousand people signed on to the Legislature’s website to express opposition to the income tax proposal our Democratic colleagues are pushing this year.
Never have we seen anything like this. Why Senate Bill 6346 is so unpopular is anybody’s guess. Maybe the problem is that this would make Washington more unaffordable. Maybe it’s that this would come on top of all the other taxes we already pay. Maybe it’s that nobody buys the idea that this would remain a tax on the wealthy and the rest of us would be spared. Maybe it’s that people are upset this would eliminate any incentive to make government more effective and efficient. Maybe it’s that this would send the tech industry packing and devastate the small business owners who create most of our jobs.
Or maybe it’s that the people have voted against this terrible idea 10 times since 1934 and they don’t appreciate having this forced on them by a Legislature that has gotten tired of asking. I mean, who knows? It could be anything.
But majority Democrats already have the money spent in the budget proposals they released this week, so I guess we’re going through with it no matter what the people think.
Are you a bot?
There are some indications the public outcry is getting under our friends’ skin. When this bill got a hearing a few weeks ago in the Senate, 61,369 people signed in as “con,” and Democrats said that couldn’t be right. It couldn’t be the people doing that. It must be bots. And after they passed the bill in the Senate and the House set another hearing, and the numbers started coming in and began to climb, their complaints became even more shrill. Over the weekend majority Democrats issued press releases alleging rampant fraud and duplicate sign-ins. They blamed Republicans. They demanded investigations.
Let me point out that the sign-in system isn’t ours – it is maintained by the non-partisan offices that administer the House and Senate. But there was a kernel of truth to the charges. Some people did sign in more than once, most likely because the system doesn’t send a response when you click. They really ought to fix that. The cool thing is that anyone who knows how to work a spreadsheet can correct for duplicates.
When we do that, the Feb. 3 Senate hearing had 17,679 “pro” votes and 52,118 “con.” The Feb. 23 House hearing had 11,167 for and 96,498 against. When we eliminate people who signed in for both hearings, we get a total of 118,421 unique sign-ins against the measure. That’s nearly three times the previous record-holder, a bill last year that would have triggered massive increases in property taxes.
Democrats still want to quibble. They say sign-ins are not a scientific measure of public opinion. Fair enough. If they want a more accurate measurement, all they need to is to put the tax on the ballot and let the people decide. That strikes me as an elegant way to settle this question, and I’ll bet the people would appreciate it, too. I think we would settle the matter right quick.
Budgets repeat mistakes of the past
Drunk on taxpayer money, majority-party leaders propose budgets that set us up for more trouble in the future
We’re in the fourth quarter of our 2026 legislative session, and right on time the budget committees in the House and Senate have proposals ready for inspection. We have three to deal with before we adjourn on March 12. There’s not much argument about the transportation and capital budgets, and those should sail right through. But the operating budget is a hot mess.
This is the budget everyone means when they talk about “the budget.” It’s the budget that pays for state programs, the budget that has doubled under current legislative leadership. We started the session about $1.5 billion in the hole, mainly because our colleagues last year failed to provide money for major expenses we knew were coming this year, like lawsuit settlements and wildfire response. Now our colleagues are proposing to solve the problem by making it worse.
There are some distinctions between the House and Senate versions but no real difference. They would increase spending by $2.3 billion, going far beyond the things we absolutely have to do and bringing total spending for 2025-27 to $80.1 billion.
These proposals raid about half the money in the state Rainy-Day Fund, which we should only tap in case of emergency. They commit the cardinal sin again of using one-time money to launch permanent obligations with no plan to sustain them in the future.
These budget proposals continue the mistakes of the past. There are no serious course corrections, no real cuts, no attempt to bring spending in line with tax receipts. And it gets worse. In the out-years, they keep the budget balanced by using money from the new state income tax they haven’t gotten around to passing yet. And as a final budget move, they assume inflation will run only 2 percent, when it has been around 15 percent on average. We’ll be back in trouble again the next time we write a budget.
These budget plans also assume that the next Legislature will budget much more responsibly than this one. I wouldn’t bet on that, would you?
Thanks for reading,
Leonard Christian
4th Legislative District
Contact me!
If you have a comment about state government, or a concern with a state agency, I hope you will reach out to my office. My most important duty is to serve you.
Mailing address: Post Office Box 40404, Olympia, WA 98504
Email: Leonard.Christian@leg.wa.gov
Phone: (360) 786-7606
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