Business Community Government

Local legislators offer bleak assessment of upcoming session

Legislators representing the 26th District told a Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce crowd on Wednesday that they will fight tax increases when work resumes at the Capitol next week.

Will they succeed? The three lawmakers didn’t sound optimistic.

“At this stage of the game, it doesn’t matter how we (26th District legislators) vote,” state Rep. Michelle Valdez, R-Gig Harbor, said. “There WILL be more taxes this year.”

Session starts next week

The 2026 legislative session begins Monday, Jan. 12. It will end March 12 if legislators stick to the 60-day schedule. 

They have a lot to do in that “short” session. The state faces a $2.3 billion budget shortfall through the end of the current budget biennium in 2027 — and a projected $4.3 billion shortfall through 2029.

This despite the 2025 Legislature approving and Gov. Bob Ferguson signing a budget that increased taxes by about $9 billion over four years.

“I know these costs are hitting families,” 26th District Rep. Adison Richards, D-Gig Harbor, said at the Jan. 7 Chamber of Commerce event at the Gig Harbor campus of Tacoma Community College. “It seems too often, my caucus’s response is increasing taxes.”

Speaking to a predominantly pro-business crowd at the chamber’s annual Legislative Send-off event, all three legislators expressed solidarity with the business community.

“Small businesses got hit hard” by last year’s tax increases, Democratic state Sen. Deb Krishnadasan of Gig Harbor said. Krishnadasan campaigned last fall on her vote against her party’s 2025 budget. “If you’re going to have a new tax, what other taxes are you taking away so that our families and small businesses and seniors have relief?”

Legislators from the 26th District — from left, Rep. Michelle Valdez, R-Gig Harbor; Rep. Adison Richards, D-Bremerton; and Sen. Deb Krishnadasan, D-Gig Harbor — talk with Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Miriam Battson on Wednesday, Jan. 7. Photo by Vince Dice

Income tax on millionaires

Ferguson, a Democrat in his first term in the governor’s office, recently announced his support for an income tax on state residents who earn more than $1 million a year. Advocates say the tax on just 0.5% of the population would bring a projected $3 billion a year to state government — but not until 2029 at the earliest.

Such a tax would almost certainly be challenged in court and would need to go before voters for approval.

People who earn at least $1 million a year would “have ample time to move out of state before 2029,” warned chamber President and CEO Miriam Battson, who moderated the event.

Valdez — previously Michele Caldier before her recent marriage — warned that big businesses like Microsoft, Amazon and Boeing might leave the state.

“We have not treated businesses very friendly,” Valdez said. “I’m very worried … We have got to lay off the attack on businesses.” 

Zero-based budgeting, bringing work in-house

Richards said he is “not for any of these proposals right now” and suggested Democrats should embrace the traditionally Republican idea of “zero-based budgeting.” That means, effectively, starting every new budget from zero rather than incorporating the previous budget’s funding.

“We’ve stood up a lot of programs over the past 10 to 15 years. Just in reading through the budget, there’s a lot of stuff that looks duplicative,” Richards said.

Krishnadasan, who defeated Valdez to retain her seat in November, predicted the 2026 session will include “painful cuts” to some state programs. She called for cutting back on state government’s use of private contractors. 

“We employ a lot of people in this state, state employees,” she said. “Yet we continue to contract work out. Why can’t we bring that in house? It costs a lot less to do the work with your own employees than the exorbitant cost of outside contractors.” 

‘The land of reality’

Valdez acknowledged that none of the three local legislators have much say in the budget. Democratic leadership in both houses, as well as the chairs of powerful legislative committees, control the purse strings. 

She expects a high-earners income tax to pass, though courts and voters will ultimately decide its fate. Regardless, the present budget problem will remain. 

“I would love to see some of the spending curbed,” Valdez said. “But I also live in the land of reality, because every year I’ve seen spending go up.”