Senator calls Gov. Inslee’s budget ‘absurd’ and ‘idiotic’

Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget plan includes more than $4 billion in new taxes, most of which would be dedicated to funding education, and it isn’t sitting well with at least one state senator.

Michael Baumgartner (R-Spokane) told Seattle’s Morning News there are better ways to fund education. He says Inslee’s proposal is “absurd and idiotic.”

The increase “would cripple small businesses and put working people out of jobs,” Baumgartner said. “So we’re certainly not going to do that.”

Related: Inslee proposes $3 million for mental health

Inslee’s plan would increase business and occupation tax for service businesses from 1.5 percent to 2.5 percent, the Tacoma News Tribune reports. That would raise more than $2 billion over the course of two years.

Going around Inslee’s budget

Baumgartner says instead of “blindly pumping” money into the education system, the state needs to reform the system. And to do that, he wants to repeal the part of the state Constitution that says funding education is a paramount duty. That would essentially remove the state Supreme Court’s ruling that lawmakers have failed to fully fund education and the requirement to pump billions into the system to do so by 2018 — per the McCleary decision.

This would make the Legislature and voters more accountable, Baumgartner says. His proposal looks at reform, rather than money.

“If people don’t think Legislators are doing their job, they could just vote them out of office…” he added.

Inslee’s budget is only a proposal at this point. It will have to gain the approval of the state Legislature over the next year before the state can truly boast that it is fully funding education and complying with the McCleary decision. The Legislature, however, has a Republican majority — a hurdle that the Democratic governor’s budget will have to pass.

Inslee said he hopes that lawmakers will “agree with me” by favoring the capital gains tax, and not “put more burden on working people by increasing sales and property taxes.”

Many homeowners would see either a decrease or little change in property taxes under Inslee’s proposal. About half of the additional revenue would be funded through taxes on capital gains and carbon emissions.

Like Baumgartner, many Republicans were quick to criticize Inslee’s budget. Senator Ann Rivers said it would pull a “massive amount” of money out of the economy.

The News Tribune reports teacher salary would also increase under the proposed budget. That includes an extra $19,000 a year for beginning teachers. Administrators, according to the Tribune, would see a good bump as well.

Somewhat surprisingly, Baumgartner says he supports paying teachers higher wages to keep them in the state. However, he would like to see their schedules changed. They would have to work year-round, he says. Plus, teachers should be fired for not “getting the job done,” and their pensions should be similar to “everyone else,” he added.

Listen to Baumgartner’s entire conversation below.

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