Governor's State Of The State disappoints Republicans

OLYMPIA — Governor Inslee laid out his priorities Tuesday for the upcoming session at the annual State of the State address, including passage of the capital budget and funding public schools, but half of his speech focused on one item: a carbon tax.

“Now is the time to join in action and put a price on carbon pollution,” Inslee said to the applause of Senate and House Democrats.

The governor’s office released details of the proposed carbon tax legislation during a policy brief Tuesday morning. If passed as it is written, a carbon tax of $20 per ton would begin in July 2019, increasing 3.5 percent over inflation every year.

The governor’s office projects that consumers would not feel the effect of the tax until 2020, at which point gas prices would rise around 6 to 9 percent. The average household’s electricity bill would rise 4 to 5 percent.

Republicans in both legislative chambers promptly responded to the carbon tax, as well as the governor’s speech more broadly. Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, said that Inslee lacked the willingness to compromise that Republicans had afforded Democrats in 2017.

“Now that there’s a one-vote majority down the hall the Democrats suddenly think they can pass a capital budget without any kind of bipartisan compromise, without listening to what Republicans want, and Inslee thinks he can get his way by giving a big speech,” Stokesbary said. “This is about Inslee’s almost pathological need to pick winners and losers.”

The governor is looking to a carbon tax to help fund a billion dollars for public schools, which would bring the state into compliance with the 2012 McCleary decision. The state Supreme Court has fined the state $100,000 per day since August 2015 for failing to come into compliance soon enough.

While Inslee is looking to take that billion dollars from reserve funds the state already has on hand, the carbon tax would serve to replenish those reserves. Still, Republicans have showed little appetite for drawing on reserve funds to fund schools.

Senate Minority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville said the reserves should be preserved for times of dire need.

“The constitutional rainy-day fund is there for natural disasters and economic downturn,” Schoesler said. “We haven’t had either one. To rely on the constitutionally protected rainy-day fund prematurely is very short-sighted thinking.”

House Minority Leader Rep. Dan Kristiansen said that although the state is currently experiencing an economic upswing, it would be unwise to expect that to continue to be the case.

“We only need to go back to 2007, where we had a $2 billion surplus,” Kristiansen said. “Next year we had a $9 billion deficit. If we’re going to continue to ignore history, then we’re not doing right by the public.”

Other facets of the governor’s State of the State address drew Republican ire. Rep. Randi Becker, R-Eatonville, said that Inslee misunderstands the importance of a legislative fix for Hirst. “Rural people need wells, and yet he refers to fish passage and aging water lines,” Becker said. “We need to have him finally realize that this is a big issue.”