DORI MONSON

Why the new Washington state budget is infuriating

Jul 1, 2017, 7:20 PM | Updated: Jul 2, 2017, 2:21 pm

Sidney Walton, Carols at the Capitol...

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

(AP Photo/Ted S. Warren)

We are starting to get details of the new Washington state budget. At $43.7-billion, it is a massive increase in state government and a massive increase in taxation. That tax increase will mostly fall on Puget Sound area property owners.

Government spending will increase 13.5 percent with zero significant cuts. As I wrote a week ago, there were a lot of areas where the state could have cut spending. But, no. Former teachers who have molested children will continue to get their pensions. Illegals will continue to receive welfare. But, law-abiding tax-paying citizens will take a huge hit.

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This whole state budget process has been about how much to increase taxes. Dems are always about how fast and how much they can raise our taxes. They were just doing what Democrats do.

Republicans were given control of the state senate to keep spending in check. I’m very disappointed in their role in this final state budget.

And the public was given no time to review the budget. It was presented and passed in just a couple hours. Citizens had zero chance to be watchdogs of our government.

And here is the most important point, one that almost no one considers: Washington is experiencing a booming economy right now, especially in the Seattle region. But economies run in cycles. An inevitable downtown is in our future. I don’t know if it will be later this year or in the next 2-3 years, but I know we’re in a bubble.

To base a massive increase in state spending on the very best of times is simply not sustainable. When we have the downturn, how are families going to be able to afford this level of taxation?

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