Washington Votes Forum

As long as residents keep voting in liberals they will keep trying to tax us to death. Every time we vote and get a law on the books to put all proposed taxes and fees to the people to vote, it becomes the highest priority on their agenda to repeal it. Every time. Never fails. Dump the liberals...

No, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO, NO... What is it with you dems that you cannot understand the word NO? NO means NO, even my new puppy knows the word NO. Maybe if the populace hits your collective noses with a newpaper with every NO we have said to a state income tax, you too will learn what NO means. NO...

WashingtonVotes.org will provide gavel-to-gavel coverage of the 2012 Regular Session of the Washington State Legislature that convenes today, January 9th. This free website allows interested citizens, media, activists, government affairs professionals and policymakers to track the issues they care about...

What do you think of a Special Session? It's official, the Governor and lawmakers have agreed to the terms that will allow the legislature the extra time they need to finalize the state's budgets. Lawmakers failed to finish their work on time during the 105-day long regular session. The Governor...

As the final days of the 2011 Regular Session slip away, the House and Senate have yet to agree to a budget deal. This means lawmakers will have to come back to Olympia in for an unscheduled Special Session. During a Special Session should lawmakers only focus on the budget, or should all policies be...

Budget time? More rumors abound that first year House Budget Chair, Rep. Ross Hunter , is poised to release an operating budget as early as this coming Monday. Here is a good blog entry from AWB were Rep. Hunter and Senate Budget Chair Ed Murray discuss the ongoing budget discussion.

Is Senate Majority Leader, Lisa Brown , looking towards a Special Session and raising taxes? On TVW's Inside Olympia , with Austin Jenkins, Sen. Brown talked about the possibilities of needing a Special Session to solve the state's widening budget gap. Jenkins also asked the Senator if the Legislature...

Should the state continue to expand the use of tolls on area roads? EHB 1382 , which passed the House by a vote of 52 to 46 , directs the Department of Transportation to develop and operate express toll lanes on Interstate 405. The tolls would be between the city of Bellevue at 6th Street on the South...

Are there additional savings available? Today the House and Senate approved HB 1086 , reducing the total state deficit by nearly $368 million. The Governor just vetoed various sections, adding about $6.4 million back to the deficit. The state is still looking at a current fiscal year deficit of more...

Unless I am mistaken this will just be another tax passed on to the consumer. Or will this new cost of doing business just magically be paid by people from some other state? We cannot continue to look for new and inventive ways to tax the citizens of Washington state. Rep. Sherry Appleton, (D-Poulsbo...