You're paying for a new budget

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 team was in the room for rounds one and two, then Democrats excluded our ideas the rest of the way.

During the final three...