Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Serving Lincoln County for more than a century!
Sorted by date Results 95 - 119 of 1893
Last year the Washington Legislature passed one of those high-handed virtue-signaling bills so popular with our green friends in the majority party. HB 1589 allows the state's largest private utility to exit the natural gas business and shunt billions of dollars in shutdown costs to its customers. Gas and electricity prices will soar in Puget Sound Energy's service territory, business will be disrupted and homeowners will face enormous costs to replace gas-powered appliances...
Although President Donald Trump and Harvard’s recent spats make headlines, key issues in question affect all higher education. Harvard, our nation’s first college (1636), is a center of current civil disruption and antisemitic behavior. The timing is bad because high school graduates are finalizing their college choices or deciding to forego college altogether. Last year, Boston Magazine’s Jon Keller described Harvard as suffering from “A crushing cancel culture, accusat...
Congress is currently debating Medicaid reform as part of the 2025 budget package. The stated Republican goal is a continuation of Trump’s 2017 tax cuts, which are set to expire at the end of this year and need offsetting savings somewhere else in the budget. The original proposal was a $880 billion reduction in the projected increase to the Medicaid entitlement over the next 10 years, along with other savings in federal spending. Medicaid began in 1965 as part of President Jo...
Four years ago, during the legislative session, a lawmaker circulated talking points noting farmers could afford more taxes because they earned $250,000 working part-time. This legislative session, during a work session on rural and agricultural mental health, a legislator asked how farmers and people living in urban environments were different. During the same work session, another legislator asked how unions were involved in mental health respite activities in agriculture....
Washingtonians have good reason to be distrustful of the policies coming out of the state Capitol. While the legislation itself matters, how it’s crafted is also important – and, increasingly, there is less transparency, bipartisanship, or accountability. My goal as a state lawmaker is to work together and avoid partisanship, so I am greatly concerned that the new state operating budget was developed with little Republican input. Using the Senate as an example, our budget tea...
This week, we mark National Police Week. It's a time to honor law enforcement officers who gave their lives in the line of duty-and to show our unwavering support for those who continue to serve and protect our communities and country each and every day. From Spokane to Stevens County, the men and women of law enforcement form the backbone of public safety in Eastern Washington. They're the ones who answer the call when our homes, schools, or streets are in danger. They do...
Michael Baumgartner is hostile to his constituents and generally all Washingtonians. He claims to be a “state’s rights guy”, as Republicans used to be until most congressional Republicans now cowardly won’t stand up against President Donald Trump’s wannabe all-powerful dictatorship. Accordingly, Baumgartner fell in line with House Republican colleagues by recently joining a letter from the House Judicial Committee to Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown. The letter, in effect, claims that Trump’s extremely c...
Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed rent control into law last week and the law took effect immediately. House Bill 1217 had an emergency clause on the legislation, so there is no ability for the public to weigh in with a referendum or initiative. The bill 1217 caps rent increases at 7% plus the Consumer Price Index or 10%, whichever is less. Along with the caps, there are new penalties, notification requirements and restrictions on property owners. The effect of the...
Our state is in the grip of a deadly fentanyl crisis that is hurting communities from Pierce County to Spokane County. Yet, while lives are being lost every day, the Democrat majority in the Legislature chose to stand idly by rather than enact meaningful reforms this session. In Pierce County, where I live, we have seen a heartbreaking rise in tragedies. Back in 2017, two people who were 21 or younger died from fentanyl overdoses. By 2022, that number had grown to 19. Even mor...
Washington state lawmakers this year increased the cost to both buy a vehicle and fill the gas tank, adding an additional 0.2% sales tax to car purchases and a $0.06 per gallon tax increase on fuel. They argue the new taxes are needed to maintain highway and ferry infrastructure, yet politicians furthered their efforts to tax drivers and divert a large share of those taxes to other purposes. While an attempt was also made again to tax drivers by the mile to divert money,...
Representing the 13th Legislative District and serving as chairwoman of the Senate Republican Caucus, I have had the privilege of helping shape policy on behalf of families, small businesses, and rural communities across Washington. And while this year’s legislative session included a few bright spots, the broader picture is one of missed opportunities. Let’s start with the new state operating budget. It includes a record $77.9 billion and raised $12.9 billion in new tax...
Too often, elected officials overlook the cumulative costs of regulations, taxes, and fees on taxpayers. However, those added costs come back to bite them hard when people pack up and move, businesses close, or take matters into their own hands and pass an initiative or referendum. Consider what has happened in high tax and cost of living states, such as California, New York, Illinois, and Connecticut. In 2023, the National Association of Realtors broke down migration data...
When the state Legislature began its 2025 legislative session, a Senate Democrat mistakenly e-mailed a strategy memo to the entire membership, outlining her pitch for the largest tax increase in the history of the state. “We have to identify the villain and the problem blocking our progress and how we can take action to solve the issue,” she said. She went on to name the villain – “the wealthy few” who don’t pay their fair share. If we just pounded the rich with new taxes,...
Olympia’s majority party has already made it hard for Washington families to make ends meet through policies like raising the price of gas and home energy and shrinking paychecks. Now it’s pushing the largest tax increase in state history, which would make living in our beautiful state even less affordable. At the start of our 2025 legislative session, Republicans and Democrats agreed there would be a budget gap to resolve. Knowing the state is already expecting to take in...
Since taking office just over 100 days ago, I’ve cast 100 votes–focused on securing our borders, combating fentanyl, strengthening national security, and supporting a responsible federal budget to keep our government open while we start to tackle the challenge of our national debt. I’ve introduced four bills, co-sponsored more than 50, and become the first freshman in Congress to pass a bill through the House. I’ve held seven town halls, and met with hundreds of constit...
Before the Columbia River flood control system, spring blooms often coincided with large muddy floods inundating communities and farms. While the Midwest still faces threats from swollen rivers due to heavy rain and rapid snowmelt, the Columbia River basin does not. Our abatement efforts started with the completion of Grand Coulee Dam in 1942. Although flood control was its primary purpose, Grand Coulee Dam also provides water to irrigate 670,000 acres of farmland....
For 2025, Lincoln County will be paying over $1,700,000 in risk insurance premiums. This represents a drastic increase of over $1,000,000 just in the last 4 years. And… these rates are expected to escalate next year as well, with no end in sight. Next to wages and benefits, risk insurance represents the 2nd largest expense for the county. One might wonder why such dramatic increases are happening. There are multiple factors at play, such as the state legislature passing laws t...
“Property taxes are skyrocketing in Washington!” “We need to defuse the property tax time bomb!” These were the rally cries of Tim Eyman, author of Initiative 747, which passed voter approval back in 2001. I-747 was designed to limit property tax increases to 1% more tax collected than in the previous year. This sounded great, right? The government has gotten out of control! They’re wasting all of our tax money! This certainly may have been the case in many instances...
Washingtonians recall Ralph Munro’s distinctive political advertisements, which featured 30 seconds of bagpipe music followed by a brief tagline stating, “This interlude brought to you by the Munro campaign.” As unusual and refreshing as the ads were, they worked. They spared voters from the merciless pounding dished out by sparing politicians and their band of campaign hacks. As usual and refreshing as they were, they worked! They spared voters from the unmerciful candi...
In last week’s article I touched on providing a more in-depth understanding of how local governments are funded. And why money gets spent on certain projects and certain county departments while other basic services remain underfunded. It’s all tax dollars, though. Correct. But those dollars for each district have different statutory restrictions on what they can be spent on. Sure, when you pay your property taxes, the check gets made out to the County Treasurer. But that doe...
Michael Baumgartner is, figuratively speaking, “all-over-the-map” about Ukraine—but effectively supporting Russia. He agrees that Russia clearly started the war and was/is the aggressor, and he’s assured Thrive International Ukrainian refugees that he opposes their deportation. But he completely undercuts that by his Ritzville Town Hall statement, “I don’t think [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy is doing a great job”, and by his outlandish calls for Zelenskyy to resign after President Donald Trump humiliated Ze...
As lawmakers meeting in Olympia wind up the 2025 session, they face a whopping $15 billion budget deficit—a situation they must address before adjourning and going home. Unlike Congress, state legislators and Gov. Bob Ferguson cannot authorize deficit spending or borrowing to the fund state government. They either raise taxes and fees; or cut costs programs and people. Washington is primarily funded by sales, property, specialized taxes (such as unemployment, workers compensat...
Democrat legislators claim there's a state-government budget shortfall of $12 to $15 billion, yet several of my colleagues in the state Senate just filed legislation to take much more than that through new and higher taxes -- nearly $20 billion. Only in Olympia would anyone think that makes sense. But as Republican leader on the Senate Ways and Means Committee, I can tell you how unnecessary and wrong their tax scheme is. This would be the largest tax increase in state...
When the Democrat-led Legislature passed the Climate Commitment Act (other opponents and I prefer to call it “cap-and-tax”) a few years ago, one of the promises made by Democrats was that the state’s agriculture, shipping and aviation industries would be exempt from the fuel tax created under the law. However, as farmers in the 9th District can tell you, that promise has not been kept. Despite numerous meetings and repeated requests by me and other Eastern Washington legis...
Senate Republicans have put forward a responsible, pragmatic solution to Washington's budget challenges. The Save Washington budget plan prioritizes public safety, education, and essential services - without raising taxes or raiding the state's rainy-day fund. Unlike the false choice presented by majority Democrats - either massive tax hikes or catastrophic cuts - we've proven a third way exists: a balanced, efficient, and fair budget that serves all Washingtonians. The facts...
