OLYMPIA, Wash. — Tax increases, and potentially new tax proposals, will be on the table when Washington state legislators convene in Olympia in January for an historic session.
Lawmakers will need to make up for an estimated $12 billion budget deficit, the highest in state history.
Meanwhile, the leaders of the House and Senate will be making history of their own. Speaker of the House Laurie Jinkins and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen will be the first LGBTQ members to lead their respective chambers.
"It says that the place and the space is opening up and is there for everybody, for every community to be represented," said Jinkins, who became the state’s first lesbian speaker in 2020.
“When other LGBTQ youth see that, who are likely to be feeling not so great right now, maybe, or kids of color, or things like that, they can see themselves projected on us because we're doing that,” said Jinkins.
One of their priorities this upcoming session will be passing a balanced budget.
Both Pedersen and Jinkins said new streams of revenue will be explored, and said they drew confidence from the results of the November election.
In addition to reelecting every Democratic legislator on the ballot, they said voters sent a message by rejecting initiatives that would have repealed measures, backed by Democrats, that resulted in higher state taxes and fees. The initiatives would have effectively wiped out a long-term savings law, as well as repealing a climate law blamed for higher gas prices and a capital gains tax.
“Certainly ... that's the most recent data we have from voters, right? Is the election results,” said Jinkins.
Neither legislator said they will pursue an income tax, but the highest-earners in the state would likely be impacted under potential new taxes.
"We should be taxing rich people and companies that can afford to pay more and that fairly should be paying more to support the services that we all benefit from as a community," said Pedersen.
He and Jinkins said they are also preparing for potential challenges from a second Donald Trump administration, to proactively protect Washington's existing policies and prevent potential federal interventions.
“My focus, I hope our focus, is going to be on protecting Washington's way of life,” said Jinkins, who said she is concerned about federal abortion regulations and moves that might impact marriage equity laws.