OLYMPIA… Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver and Senate Republican budget leader, said this about the 2021-23 supplemental operating budget signed today by the governor, three weeks after the majority Democrats adopted it.

“There are some good things in this budget, but the governor can’t hide the fact that in spite of a 15-billion-dollar surplus, the legislators from his party did nothing to put any money back into the pockets of average Washington families, at a time when they could really use a hand. It’s as though he and his fellow Democrats in the Legislature aren’t aware – or don’t care – that people of all income levels in our state are having to pay much higher prices for food, gas, energy, housing and more, primarily because of Democrat-supported policies.

“As this budget proves, the members of the majority clearly have other priorities, and unfortunately, those are not guided by the realities facing most families across our state. If Republicans had produced the budget, I have no question it would offer significant, direct tax relief – like a progressive property-tax reduction – along with a plan to reestablish public safety and support for a transportation-funding approach free of new taxes or fees. All of those proposals were on the table this year, along with a smarter approach to the homelessness situation, but fell victim to an above-average level of partisanship.

“It’s been easy to explain to my constituents why Republicans opposed this budget – all I have to do is point to how the costs of living have continued to rise in the weeks since it was adopted, and the huge revenue surplus the Democrats had available. Or how they spent more than 6 billion dollars on more than 1,300 new policy-related appropriations yet chose against any tax relief for families, even something as simple and universal as ending the tax on diapers. I sure wouldn’t want to be in the position of defending this budget to the people back home, as my Democratic colleagues now are. That’s because there is no defense for how they spent all those extra billions without helping the average family with the affordability crisis in our state.”