Note: The following e-newsletter was sent to Sen. Leonard Christian’s subscribers May 30, 2025. To subscribe to Sen. Christian’s e-newsletters, click here.
The governor signs the budget and tax package into law during ceremonies May 20.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We’ve just seen the epilogue of the 2025 legislative session, and I’m afraid this was no happy ending. On May 20, Gov. Bob Ferguson signed the biggest tax increase ever passed by the Washington Legislature, making only a handful of minor vetoes and sending the tab to the people of Washington state.
By assenting to pretty much everything the Legislature sent him this year, our new governor ended speculation that he might veto the budget and tax package, call the Legislature back into session, and tell us to come up with something more moderate. I wish he had, and I am sure that every Republican in the Legislature would have been happy to return.
I have been following politics closely since I retired from the Air Force in 2005, and I concur with the many observers who say 2025 was the worst session they can remember for business and the people of the state. Not only was this the biggest tax increase of all time, it also was the least necessary. By enabling reckless spending to continue, this year’s $12.25 billion tax hike virtually ensures the state will face even worse problems in the future.
We also got a six-cent-a-gallon gas-tax increase that will give us all an even greater incentive to gas up over the state line in Idaho. By the time this year’s tax increases are fully implemented, in 2028, the combined effect will be the equivalent of a $2,200 tax on the typical Washington family.
Up, up and away!
What happened this year was the unfortunate and all-too predictable result of the “progressive” policies our Democratic colleagues have pursued since they won full control of the statehouse in 2018. Spending doubled over the last decade, most of it in the last few years. Our friends spent down the state’s reserves, used one-time money to launch permanent obligations, and revived notorious budgeting practices so they could boost spending to the max.
This couldn’t last forever, of course, and 2025 should have been the year of reckoning. We had enough money to meet the state’s basic obligations without harmful cuts, but we were $7 billion short of paying for all the new spending that had been authorized in previous years. Instead of taking this as a wake-up call and a signal that something needed to change, our colleagues across the aisle decided to double down, increase spending still further and enact the mother of all tax increases to pay for it.
No course corrections
In the end, the governor made a small reduction in this year’s tax hikes, using his section-by-section veto authority to restore a mortgage-interest deduction for community banks. This year’s $77.9 billion budget continues the rapid growth of state spending, rising 8.2 percent over the next two years. This is made possible by increases in business taxes, an expansion of the sales tax, higher estate and capital gains taxes, and so many small-scale tax and fee increases that you will find yourself paying in ways you never imagined. These include higher hunting and fishing licenses, higher Discover Pass fees for access to state parks, higher college tuition, on and on.
One way or another, all of these affect the people of Washington state, either directly or in the form of a sluggish economy and diminished job growth. Because there were no material course corrections this year, we’ll be in much worse shape the next time recession hits.
An extreme policy agenda
Gov. Ferguson also signed into law all the misguided policy bills passed by his party this year, increasing the intrusiveness of government in our daily lives and giving business a good reason to think twice about relocating to Washington state or remaining here. Among other things, this year’s legislation provides six weeks of unemployment benefits to striking workers, prolonging work stoppages and giving labor the upper hand in contract negotiations. Another bill imposes a new infringement on Second Amendment rights, by requiring completion of a state-approved firearms training course for a permit allowing the purchase of a firearm. Other legislation expands a taxpayer-funded racial “reparations” program, increases the cost of Washington’s unworkable low-carbon fuel standards program and ensures the state’s affordable housing shortage will worsen, by imposing rent control.
Perhaps the most offensive bill of the session was a measure gutting last year’s parental rights initiative, allowing Olympia to dictate to local school districts on curriculum and transgender participation in girls’ sports, and permitting retaliation against school board members and administrators who push back. Not only does this measure display disdain for the 450,000 voters who signed petitions placing the parents’ rights initiative before the Legislature, it also demonstrates the majority’s contempt for the initiative process itself. Indeed, one of the people’s few victories this year was the defeat of a bill imposing great obstacles on the initiative process and hindering the people’s ability to challenge the Legislature. But don’t breathe easy. This bill could surface again next year.
Government wins, people lose
I could go on. This session failed utterly to deal with a growing crisis in our juvenile rehabilitation system – I will have more to report on that in next month’s e-newsletter. Our deadly fentanyl epidemic was ignored. A school-levy bill virtually guarantees a new school-financing lawsuit and could serve as a Trojan horse to force a general income tax on the state.
I don’t think this is the direction the people want for this state. Certainly this isn’t what I have been hearing from the people of the 4th Legislative District. I hope you will stay in touch as all of us endure the fallout of this year’s disastrous session. I am interested in knowing how you are affected by this year’s staggering tax increases and legislative overreach. Olympia needs to be made aware of the terrible impact of the decisions made this year. We will need to restore the concepts of moderation, bipartisanship and compromise to stave off another train wreck like this one.
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
Leave a message on the Legislative Hotline: 1 (800) 562-6000