John Braun commentary: To get our state back on the right track, the choice is clear
Friday, May 8, 2026
It has been a privilege to have this space week after week to alert readers about important public-policy issues facing our beautiful state and how the Republican members of our state Senate are responding to them.
Now that I have filed as a candidate for public office, this is my last commentary before the November general election. With those elections in mind, here are parting thoughts about the state of our state and how we can begin to make it better.
In his famous 1776 pamphlet "Common Sense," founding father Thomas Paine observed that government "even in its best state is but a necessary evil; in its worst state an intolerable one."
After so many years of one-party rule, our state government's performance is much closer to intolerable.
Consequences of the misguided policies and priorities of Democrats in Olympia are all around: K-12 students are struggling; children in the state's care are suffering harm; criminals are treated better than law enforcement; and homelessness shows no signs of decreasing.
Democrat leaders act like governing means standing with special interests at the expense of everyone else.
Then there's the issue as old as our nation: taxation.
The far left, which has infiltrated the Senate and House majorities like never before, decided this was the year to pursue the long-held Democrat dream of a state income tax. In just six weeks they rammed Senate Bill 6346 through Olympia, and knowing how an income tax is politically radioactive in our state, they are relying on tricks to make it stick.
A few carefully placed words allowed SB 6346 to be branded as a tax on millionaires, in line with how today's Democrats seem to delight in socialist-style smearing of financially successful persons as villains. However, Republican legislators pulled out the stops to make sure the people know that changing those few words will make this an income tax on everybody. That's probably why Democrats refused to trust the people to vote up or down on it.
Even worse, Democrats colluded with the attorney general specifically to make sure the people are prohibited from challenging the tax through a referendum. Remember that — along with the Democrats' "initiative killer" bills — the next time you hear them complaining about access to democracy.
Time is short for opponents of the income tax to go the more costly, complicated route — qualify an initiative for the November ballot — but if they succeed, watch out for a repeat of 2024. That's when powerful labor unions in league with pro-tax Democrats threw tens of millions of dollars into campaigns to sway the election, and got their way in three out of four.
Our state Supreme Court should toss the new income tax out for the same reason all the other attempts have been thrown out over the past 93 years. Unfortunately, Democrats have been prepping for the opposite outcome: Most of the current justices were initially appointed rather than elected to the bench, hand-picked by Democrat governors who supported an income tax and would have made sure their appointees agreed.
I've seen Democrats pass a lot of tax measures since they regained full control of Olympia in 2018. None has been rigged like the income tax.
On top of all this, state government doesn't need the billions of dollars the income tax would generate — how can it when the tax wouldn't be collected until 2029?
Democrats either deny or downplay the idea that layering this new income tax on top of the capital-gains income tax, the death tax, and higher business taxes is causing the flight of wealth, or capital, from our state.
The headlines say otherwise. Smart, successful job creators like Amazon.com's Jeff Bezos, Howard Schultz of Starbucks, Fisher Investments' Ken Fisher and Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories' Dr. Ed Schweitzer are among those who have made news by relocating to states that are more business-friendly, like Florida, Texas and Idaho.
The high taxes in our state are behind more than Washington's lack of affordability. A recent survey by the Association of Washington Business showed 55% of the state’s employers were thinking about moving their personal residence out of state.
The survey of over 400 Washington employers also found 24% of them were looking to move their business out of the state. Three-fourths of those responding cited our state's overall tax burden as a top concern.
To underscore the concern about jobs, the latest federal statistics put Washington's unemployment rate at fifth-highest in the nation. It's not likely to get noticeably better, as the economic forecast prepared by the state's non-partisan chief economist calls for less than 1% job growth for each year the rest of this decade.
Thomas Paine also wrote in 1776 about the "times that try men's souls." The people of Washington are certainly being tried by the Democrats' insatiable desire for more taxes and more government. Jobs and capital are fleeing our state. But it doesn't have to be like this.
Republicans led the Senate majority during my first five years as a state senator. We successfully defended against every general tax increase the Democrat-controlled House and Jay Inslee wanted, and kept spending within the state’s means, as well as the initial attempts at a capital-gains income tax.
Our agenda today reflects what we hear from the people: affordability, affordability, and more affordability, along with public safety and improving the lives of our children.
The choices in August and November are clear. Besides supporting the two citizen initiatives on the ballot, to protect girls' sports and restore the rights of students' parents, voters should oppose the income tax by every means possible — and unseat every Democrat legislator who supported it. That's how we begin to make our state better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.