Lynda Wilson

Hello Friends and Neighbors, It’s Saturday morning, and at 8 a.m. our Senate Ways and Means Committee will begin public hearings on four pieces of legislation. Three of the bills have come over from the House of Representatives; the fourth is a Senate Democratic bill that responds to the state...

OLYMPIA… Sen. Lynda Wilson says she couldn’t support the Senate Democrats’ “cap-and-tax” bill Thursday evening because it doesn’t offer a measurable return on the massive cost it represents to Washington’s families and economy. Senate Bill 5126 passed with the minimum 25 votes, all from Democrats. “There’s no question that this...

OLYMPIA… Sen. Lynda Wilson’s bill confirming that fire-protection districts may offer worker-safety classes was signed today by the governor in a ceremony at the state Capitol. Senate Bill 5338 had been approved unanimously by the Senate on Feb. 16 and the House of Representatives on March 24. The new law...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, The 2021 session crossed the three-quarters mark this week, and the big news is the Senate’s passage of two budgets… budgets that could hardly be more different, as I’ll explain. Today brings another of the session’s major deadlines. A week ago it was for Senate policy...

OLYMPIA… If the Senate’s Democratic majority wants a new state budget that is truly historic, says Sen. Lynda Wilson, there are more good ideas to be had in the Republican alternative she will put before the full Senate today. “Earlier this week my Democratic colleagues spoke of ‘meeting the moment’...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, My report a week ago outlined how it’s “raining money” in Olympia, between the March 17 state revenue forecast and money from the American Rescue Act approved March 11. So why would my Senate Democrat colleagues need to drain the state rainy-day fund AND bank on...

Best parts of new plan mirror Republican spending ideas, says Wilson Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver and Republican leader on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, offered this statement about the 2021-23 operating-budget proposal made public today by the state Senate’s Democratic majority. “The good news is this budget would make...

Republican budget leader notes progressive property-tax reform now within reach OLYMPIA… The Senate Democratic 2021-23 operating-budget proposal is expected to become public Thursday, and Sen. Lynda Wilson says she’ll be looking for it to be at least as taxpayer-friendly as the budget Senate Republicans proposed Feb. 11. “I’m anticipating the...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, The budget Governor Inslee submitted to the Legislature in December included the income-tax proposal that became Senate Bill 5096. When the Senate Democrats bring out their proposed operating budget this Thursday, will it incorporate the income tax somehow? Even though no revenue from the tax could...

OLYMPIA… The first state-revenue forecast for 2021 indicates a surprisingly large increase of $3.3 billion for the current two-year budget cycle and $5.2 billion over the next four years. Sen. Lynda Wilson, Republican leader on the Senate Ways and Means Committee and a member of the state Economic Revenue and...