Tag Archives: Senate

Holmquist, King say bill to unionize child care centers is unnecessary and likely to mean less money for kids

Legislation purporting to help child care centers by allowing collective bargaining is likely to have the opposite effect, taking money from centers while raising costs for parents, say Sen. Janéa Holmquist, R-Moses Lake and Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima. They serve on the Senate Labor, Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee, which heard Senate Bill 5572 today.

If the goal is to increase public subsidies for child care centers and fund a child care wage ladder, you don’t need this bill to accomplish that,” said Holmquist, the committee’s ranking Republican member. “If Democrat supermajorities in the House and Senate all support this idea, what’s stopping them from increasing subsidies and funding the child care wage ladder?” Continue reading →

King says lawmakers shouldn’t wait to address predicted deficit

The Legislature should be willing to reopen the two-year state operating budget approved in 2007 if that’s what it takes to bring spending more in line with revenue, said Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima.

The state’s quarterly revenue forecast was released this afternoon. It predicts the state treasury will take in $423 million less in revenue during the 2007-09 biennium than expected in the previous quarterly forecast, from November. Continue reading →

King votes to reinstate I-747 taxpayer protection on first day as senator

In his first voting session as a lawmaker, Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, joined a majority of Republicans and Democrats in the Senate to approve a bill reinstating the state’s 1 percent property tax levy limit.

King and other legislators met in special session today at the Capitol to reenact the tax increase cap created by Initiative 747, which had been overturned by the state Supreme Court on a technicality earlier this month. Continue reading →