Dear neighbors,
I oppose the current operating budget and tax proposals, from property tax to gas tax increases, and here’s why: When a storm is on the horizon, there is an old seafaring phrase that should apply to the headwinds facing our current state budget: batten down the hatches. And most importantly to me as your representative, I believe a majority of our district believes this as well.
We face uncertain economic times and significant state budget challenges. Our state operating budget shows deficits of nearly $16 billion over the next four years. The transportation budget is short $8 billion over the next six years.
On top of that, our state budget is funded primarily by consumption; how much gas people consume fund our roads, and how many goods and services people buy supply our sales and business and occupation taxes. We got into the current budget circumstance partly because people are not spending as much during these times of high costs.
Any economic turmoil significantly threatens the stability of our state budget going forward. And this is in every sense- from sales, to B&O, to gas. We are the most trade dependent state in the Union, which means trade wars and tariffs are simply awful for us. If tariffs and trade wars drive up costs, then people buy less, businesses suffer, jobs are lost, and our budget gets worse.
On top of that, the federal government is threatening cuts. Layoffs of federal workers will burden our unemployment and social safety net, and proposals to cut Medicaid, food security, education, section 8 housing, transportation, and so much more would have deep impacts on people, so our state will have to try and make up for as much as we can.
Our state’s core priorities have to be education, health, and safety. All of our funding decisions should be based on those priorities, and my Democratic colleagues’ intent is to do that. However, in this time of uncertainty, we need fiscal policy that threatens as little disruption as possible, particularly to the labor market to ensure we do not lose work and investments in jobs.
My deep concern is this: if we continue adding on different taxes now and do not address baseline structural issues in our budget, then we lose any slack in the chain for economic downturn, which is a real risk given the rollout of new tariffs. If investments begin to slow down from the new taxes and businesses and jobs begin to leave as they did in Seattle with the payroll tax, then any further economic trouble would accelerate this trend as businesses and stockholders look to other markets to stabilize their finances. As a state, we would not pull in expected revenues and end up in a worse crisis with broken promises when deeper cuts are made down the road than are being made now.
The Governor has proposed $4 billion in cuts and proposed a budget framework that does not include the “wealth tax,” and I agree on starting there. I was not elected to start increasing taxes, including property and gas taxes, and we have to come up with better solutions, which is why I voted no on the operating budget and will vote no on the current revenue proposals.
We should be making compromises now that keep people working, while making any revenue decisions based upon the storm brewing. During the Great Recession, Germany, one of the most trade and manufacturing dependent countries in Europe, brought together labor and business to prioritize keeping people employed, and did so while not significantly increasing public spending.
The result was low unemployment and an economy that rebounded faster than any in the world. They provide a basic framework that we could learn a lesson from in navigating the seas ahead. If we are prudent and pragmatic, then the hope is that whether the seas are rough, or smoother than feared, we will emerge afloat and more ready than ever to continue the work of keeping our State the best in the nation.
In the meantime, I will continue to represent the interests of our district and the people I’ve been elected to serve.
