Representatives Sharon Wylie and Monica Stonier and Senator Annette Cleveland talked about the new ‘Millionaire’s Tax’ as well as an update on the new Interstate 5 Bridge, bi-partisanship, budgeting, and more at a town hall Saturday in Vancouver

Paul Valencia
Clark County Today

Democrat leaders from the 49th Legislative District held a town hall Saturday in Vancouver, highlighting their reasons for voting for a state income tax and stating their optimism for the proposed new Interstate 5 bridge.

State Representatives Sharon Wylie and Monica Stonier and Senator Annette Cleveland answered questions for 90 minutes at a conference room at the Educational Service District 112 building. The trio touched on a number of subjects to a crowd of close to 40 people, who wrote several questions prior to the start of the event..

Wylie noted there were a number of questions regarding the so-called Millionaire’s Tax.

Democrats call it the Millionaire’s Tax to remind people that it is a tax that will only affect those who make more than $1 million. Republicans argue that it is a state income tax, and that it only takes a vote of the legislature to reduce that number some time in the future.

Wylie and Stonier said that is not in anyone’s plans.

“There are a lot of things being said about the Millionaire’s Tax that aren’t true,” Wylie said. “One is that it is going to affect everybody. It won’t.”

She said that “most of the people” who have written in to voice their concerns with the new tax “will never pay that tax,” she said.

Stonier said the bill will affect fewer than 1,000 households in Southwest Washington. It is about taxing the 1-percent of earners and using that to “better support the poorest people in the state,” she said.

On the whispers that the $1 million number could come down in the future, Stonier said she does not see that happening.

“You have to have the votes for that. I wasn’t going to vote for that. I was not going to vote for a flat income tax,” Stonier said, adding that she does not even see that coming up in the future.

Cleveland said her research showed that 192 individuals in the 49th Legislative District will be affected by the tax. She said that some of them reached out to her and her colleagues and said they wanted to pay “their fair share.”

“We have to address fairness and equity in our tax system,” Cleveland said.

Moving on to the subject of the Interstate Bridge, Cleveland reminded folks that one of the reasons she stepped up to run for office was because of the “need for us to replace the 107-year-old Interstate Bridge that is the major backbone of the Interstate system here in the region.”

She added: “Horrifying to me that this 107-year-old draw bridge is the way we move goods and services, and healthcare personnel, and families back and forth between our two states,” Cleveland said.

“I’m so pleased to say Washington stepped up and committed funding for that project. Oregon stepped up and committed funding for the project,” Cleveland said, adding that Washington Governor Bob Ferguson recently visited Vancouver to announce that construction should start in 2028.

Earlier in the town hall, the legislators talked about the budget process while working in Olympia.

House Democrats, Stonier said, “often talk about our operating budget as a contract with the people of the state and wish to do our best to show our values in that.”

Cleveland added: “Our budgets are an expression of our values.”

They also talked about bi-partisanship, noting that Southwest Washington political leaders have a strong working relationship.

“I feel it is so important that all perspectives be listened to and heard when we are working on policy and really tough issues,” Cleveland said.

She sits on a joint-legislative commission on civility and civil discourse.

Cleveland said more than 90 percent of the bills passed in the senate in the most recent session had votes from both sides of the aisle.

There will always be disagreements, Cleveland said, but “it’s important that we continue to respect one another.”

“Our delegation here is one known for delivering for the community in bi-partisan fashion,” Stonier added.

This also was Wylie’s last town hall as a state representative. She is running for Clark County auditor.

“I have to say it has been an enormous source of pride for me to do this work,” Wylie said. “I am so proud to be chosen for these years by a community that votes to tax themselves to take care of the homeless, that always supports libraries, that has a record second to none in supporting the schools, is known for volunteering, and honors their past history and makes it part of the present. It has been incredible. It has been the best job I could imagine having.”