House Republicans have introduced a series of budget reform bills in response to legislative Democrats’ proposals to increase taxes by more than 20 billion dollars.
House Republican Budget Leader Travis Couture says overspending and lack of accountability under Democratic leadership is what created a 10-billion-dollar budget deficit. And now they want to raise taxes by historic levels to fix the mess.
“You’ve gotta be able to ask for accountability and transparency in government. You’ve gotta be a good steward of the taxpayers’ dollars. They’re not doing that!”
Couture has introduced 11 budget reform bills that would establish spending priorities, implement tax and spending limits, rein in bureaucracy, require performance audits, and establish a zero-based budgeting system:
“Unless we fix how we create our budget, we will be back here again, because we are following the same exact broken and failed practices that got us here.”
Couture says the state budget can be balanced without major cuts or tax increases. He says these new budget reforms would finally force the state to live within its means.
John Sattgast reports from Olympia.