VANCOUVER… Sen. Lynda Wilson, Republican leader on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, offered this statement regarding the 2021-23 supplemental operating budget Gov. Jay Inslee is submitting to the state Legislature:

“In the past four years the governor has backed almost two dozen tax increases that will take billions from Washington taxpayers. Those include the new income tax he proposed and endorsed while the people of our state were struggling with the pandemic, and the new payroll tax that is just a couple weeks away. The state treasury is on track to be billions of dollars ahead, yet the governor doesn’t have the heart to propose significant, direct tax relief for a single resident of our state. It’s as though he has no respect for the taxpayers. That’s inexcusable.

“State spending has doubled during Governor Inslee’s time in office. It’s grown at more than twice the rate of median wages for working people across Washington – and that was before all the big spending in the governor’s new proposal. Is the governor oblivious to these times of historic inflation and how they affect struggling families? You wonder if he’s as out of touch as the chief executive in the other Washington.

“Republicans understand there are needs involving public safety, homelessness, mental health, transportation and other front-burner issues, but we also recognize how government has been taking from the people year after year – and that now is the time for giving, by reducing tax rates so people can keep more of their own money. Our bipartisan proposal for property-tax relief would be particularly helpful to homeowners on the lower end of the income scale.

“If you look at what’s come out of Olympia for most of the past two years, it’s clear that the legislative majority would rather stand with the governor and allow his one-person control and pattern of taxpayer disrespect to continue. Together they’re making Washington unaffordable.”