Rep. Mike Steele Calls Current Short Session, “Longest of His Career”

The State Legislature is expected to release the bi-chamber
Capital and Operating budgets over the weekend with final adoption early next
week.

12^th District Rep. Mike Steele says the session
is scheduled to end Thursday, March 12th.

“We will see no tax relief despite a $2.4 billion budget
surplus. We are overcommitting, in my opinion, extraordinary revenue [to] these
one-time programs that we’ve decided to fund in this short session which only
takes us up to the end of the biennium.”

Steele says one of his biggest concerns is that these
programs will be funded and that next year they will be looking for that same
level of commitment.

In addition, Steele says the State House has been going into overdrive passing more bills than is reasonable for a short session.

He specifically noted that it feels like the longest short
session of his legislative career.

“For me, personally, there’s nothing that important to pass
thousands of bills in a short session. It’s a little bit crazy. This is
supposed to be a supplemental year where we look at our budgets, fill the
holes. Look at programs that may or may not need a little bit of an adjustment.
But to introduce thousands of bills just to create a new agenda all over the
state of Washington is staggering.”

One of those bills will require comprehensive sex education beginning in Kindergarten, something Steele is vehemently against but did note that the plan is to make the curriculum age appropriate.

You can hear the conversation with the 12th District Rep. below: