WA lawmaker: State ‘may be in big trouble’ without special legislative session

Many Republicans are continuing to call for Gov. Inslee to designate a special legislative session as the state finds itself in a significant financial hole brought on the by the pandemic. State Rep. Jacquelin Maycumber (R-Republic) is one of the voices calling on Inslee to do so, and joined the Jason Rantz Show on KTTH to discuss.

What’s the biggest reason why we need a special legislative session now versus waiting until the session normally would start?

“We may be entering one of the greatest depressions in our history, or at least our generation, and we don’t know what to look at until we can see and get in and look at the numbers. And if we don’t start prioritizing today and really looking at what are the most important things that we need to take care of, we may be in big trouble when April and August come around,” she said.

AG candidate Larkin would redirect resources to help law enforcement

Should a special session occur, the priority for Maycumber would be examining the budget and state spending, which she believes is putting Washington at risk.

“If you remember right in 2018 after the election in the midterms, the majority party went in and increased spending 18%, the highest in state history. That was just a few months after the election. And recent continuous cries of there’s gonna be a rainy day, you can’t spend it all–unfortunately, that rainy day has come,” she said.

Snohomish County Council Chair: Boeing decision will damage local economy

“So let’s talk about making sure that we take care of our most vulnerable in healthcare, that we take care of public safety, that we take care of education. And all of us just wanna be safe, we really want to be safe with our health, we really want to be safe in our jobs, and we want to be safe in our communities when it comes to public safety. So having that conversation saying, ‘OK, where should we prioritize your hard earned dollars’ is an important conversation to have and not wait for the next fiscal year to even look at it or address it.”

Maycumber says Inslee has not been communicative with the Legislature, and just taking on every decision on his own, which she says creates a feeling of uncertainty in the state.

“The governor’s really taken every single decision on his own. He has not communicated with the Legislature … Frankly, it’s almost a magic eight ball of guidelines. We don’t know when he’s gonna shake that eight ball and say the next time he has a press conference, and so you see an almost suffering of a crisis of confidence,” she said.

“We’re in a health crisis and economic crisis, and now a crisis of confidence in our government. We really need to get together and do what you elected us to do and that is represent the people … Let’s make sure that we can continue to do our jobs.”

Listen to the Jason Rantz Show weekday afternoons from 3 – 6 p.m. on KTTH 770 AM (or HD Radio 97.3 FM HD-Channel 3). Subscribe to the podcast here.