Republican budget leaders on Senate Democrats’ record-setting tax package: ‘a new kind of March madness’

Republican Senators Gildon and Torres criticize Democrats' $20 billion tax package, calling it harmful to working families. — Republican Senators Gildon and Torres criticize Democrats’ $20 billion tax package, calling it harmful to working families.

Senators react to the $20 billion tax package proposed by the Senate’s majority Democrats Thursday

Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, and Sen. Nikki Torres, R-Pasco, offered this reaction to the $20 billion, four-year tax package proposed by the Senate’s majority Democrats Thursday (March 20), ahead of the anticipated Monday rollout of their 2025-27 operating-budget proposal.

From Sen. Gildon, who is Senate Republican budget leader:

“My first reaction was wow – this is a new kind of March madness, especially the new attempt to do away with the 1% cap voters put on property-tax growth. We keep hearing from Senate Democrats that they want to make the wealthiest Washingtonians pay more. But the property-tax increase they want is regressive. It would fall directly on the backs of families who are far from wealthy and also become a pass-through cost to renters across our state. To me that’s talking out of both sides of your mouth.

“Everyone knows what the Climate Commitment Act has done to their cost of living, yet it’s a lot smaller than any of the taxes the Democrats proposed today.

“Senate Republicans have proven we can have a balanced budget without a single tax increase or a single service cut. Our $ave Washington approach is a better way to support the priorities we all share, including full funding for K-12 and services for our most vulnerable neighbors, without asking working families to pay more.”

From Sen. Torres, who is assistant budget leader:

“How could our Democratic colleagues ‘scrub the budget for savings,’ as they claimed today, and still want $20 billion in new and higher taxes? I’m also very troubled by the property-tax increase, because the annual growth rate would likely be higher than the 3% they proposed in 2023 and 2024, and it would compound over time.

“Republicans brought up the idea of a temporary 1% sales-tax cut in 2022, when the state had a surplus. The Democrats did nothing. Now they’re proposing to cut the sales tax half a percentage point, but only along with the largest set of tax increases in state history – and the sales-tax cut wouldn’t take effect until 2027 anyway. It’s hard to see that as a serious attempt to help the struggling households across our state.

“The Senate Democrats make a point of suggesting each one of their tax increases would help public schools. The $ave Washington budget we unveiled March 11 would fully fund our K-12 schools without any tax increases. The truth is, they’ve wanted tax increases like these for years. The budget shortfall is simply a convenient new excuse.”