Lynda Wilson

OLYMPIA… The final 2021-23 operating-budget agreement made public this afternoon by the Legislature’s majority Democrats is still a step backwards for Washington’s low-income families and marginalized communities, say budget leaders in the Senate Republican Caucus. Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, and Sen. Sharon Brown, R-Kennewick, also are critical of how legislators...

OLYMPIA… Sen. Lynda Wilson says majority Democrats negotiating the new 2021-23 state budget should have had a final version ready for consideration before now – and it definitely shouldn’t take until Saturday, although that timeline has been predicted by the Democrat chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee and...

Hello Friends and Neighbors, The final day of our 105-day session is a week from this Sunday. I mentioned in my previous report how there’s no excuse for going past that deadline when one party controls both houses of the Legislature… but sure enough, the chatter about an overtime session...

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...