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Republican leaders push back on tax, property and bond changes as budget debate intensifies
Summary
At a week‑5 press availability in Olympia, House and Senate Republican leaders said they oppose lowering school bond thresholds, raising property tax caps, road‑usage charges and major minimum‑wage increases, arguing those measures would shift costs to working Washingtonians and local voters.
Republican leaders from Washington’s House and Senate caucuses used a week‑5 media availability in Olympia to outline priorities and oppose a slate of tax and property‑related proposals they say would hurt working families.
"It's less of a budget crisis and more of a priorities crisis," said Representative Peter Arbarno, the House Republican caucus chair, arguing GOP proposals focus on public safety and affordability while criticizing Democratic bills that he said carry "huge fiscal notes." Senate Republican leader John Braun warned that proposals to lower the constitutional threshold for school bonds and to raise property‑tax caps would shift costs onto local voters and the state’s poorest homeowners.
Braun argued lowering the school bond threshold would be regressive and cited differences in property‑tax impacts across jurisdictions: "In Seattle... it's 30 cents or less per thousand. If they run a bond in Peter or my neighborhood, it's gonna be anywhere from a dollar fifty to $2.50 per thousand." He added that a proposed property‑tax change discussed by the majority could "scale up to over $10,000,000,000 over 10 years," a figure he presented as the estimated fiscal effect.
Asked about lowering the 60% threshold for school bonds, Arbarno said House Republicans had "little to no support" for such a change and urged more state investment and transparency in capital budgets so local measures succeed without changing constitutional rules.
On a proposed road‑usage charge to fund transportation, Republican leaders called the proposal another regressive tax, noted it is not constitutionally protected and said it raises logistical challenges compared with the gas tax. "I don't see how you count votes and get this through both chambers," Braun said of the road‑usage proposal.
Speakers repeatedly framed their stance as protecting taxpayers and preserving local control. The Republican leaders also tied their budget approach to public‑safety initiatives, highlighting a Senate bill by Sen. Holy they said would bring about $100,000,000 to hire additional officers.
The press availability included questions about several other tax proposals and fiscal priorities; no formal votes or actions were taken at the event. The caucus said it will continue to press those priorities in the remaining weeks of the session and return for another media availability next Tuesday.
