Greater Grays Harbor, Inc. (GGHI), hosted a Business Forum Lunch: Legislative Wrap-Up at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen on Tuesday.

Local lawmakers Sen. Mike Chapman, D-District 24; Rep. Adam Bernbaum, D-District 24, Position 1; Rep. Steve Tharinger, D-District 24, Position 2; Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-District 19; Rep. Jim Walsh, R-District 19; and Rep. Joel McEntire, R-District 19 Position 2 were “invited to present on the strides made and challenges from the recently concluded 2025 Legislative Session.” Dozens of business and civic leaders attended the event including mayors, city councilors, county commissioners and more.

GGHI Board of Directors Chairman Kyle Pauley served as the moderator for the event that began with welcoming remarks from GGHI CEO Darrin Raines and Emily Shay, a state lobbyist at Gordon Thomas Honeywell Government Relations and government affairs specialist for GGHI. Shay outlined all three Washington state budgets — $77.8 billion operating budget, $15.5 billion transportation budget and $7.3 billion capital budget.

Shay also described the lobbying efforts to keep the U.S. Highway 12 Rail Separation project in the transportation budget and prevent it from getting pushed to 2031.

Back in mid-January GGHI held its annual legislative send-off prior to the start of the 2025 session and all six lawmakers discussed their priorities and displayed guarded optimism as they set off to tackle issues near and dear to the voters of Grays Harbor County.

Despite the passing of a balanced two-year budget (as required by Washington state law), which was signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson on May 20, while preserving the funding and timeline for the U.S. Highway 12 Rail Separation project, they came back angry because of the $9 billion in tax increases the Legislature ultimately passed, including a six-cent increase to the gasoline tax, which raises the per-gallon gas tax from 49.4 cents to 55.4 cents. It will then be raised by 2% each year to account for inflation.

“We’re not here to defend government, we’re here to reform it, and then we close up this session with the largest tax increases in the history of the state of Washington,” Sen. Wilson said. “My biggest takeaway was it was false. We did not reform government, we fed government. We loaded it up with your money and other people’s money. That broke my heart. The truth is my heart is broken. We didn’t need to do this.”

“That’s bad politics from a rural district to co-sponsor a six-cent gas tax, it’s really bad politics for me, for my district. My research would indicate that I was the very first senator from the 24th to ever support a gas tax increase,” Sen. Chapman said. “It was bipartisan both ways. It was a good bill, a good piece of legislation because it was bipartisan. It was the only way we were gonna keep the rail separation project alive. Without the six cents, that project would have been delayed indefinitely. I would argue we’ll probably be raising taxes again next year and the year after and the year after.”

“It looks like we have not learned much from the last session to this, we were in trouble, we’re still in trouble,” Rep. McEntire said. “We may get the sugar high fix that we want, it’s not going to be sustainable long term, because it has made an environment that is not conducive to business, working families and kids who grow up and (want to stay in Washington). (Now) they want to leave, they want to get out, they want to go somewhere else and that is not taken into account and yet it comes back to get us.”

“I think that most people who were in Olympia would tell you that this was one of the worst or the worst years they experienced. … One (reason) is just the size of the deficit,” Rep. Bernbaum said.

“It was an awful session. The capital and transportation budgets (were) fairly bipartisan, the capital was unanimous, nearly, those were not the problem. The problem is the operating budget. The problem with the operating budget is it’s the largest of the three by far,” Rep. Walsh said. “It was my position, and the position of many in the Legislature, that the way to resolve the projected budget deficit was to hold spending at … approximately $73 billion, we didn’t do that. The majority of the Legislature increased the operating budget spending to about $78 billion. And that additional spending required additional taxes. We increased taxes a record amount, this was not necessary. It was a choice to spend more and tax more. I believe that is the wrong choice at this point and time.”

After each lawmaker offered their thoughts on the legislative session, they participated in a short Q&A session and then had the opportunity to talk about their between-session priorities for the months ahead.

Sen. Chapman concluded the event by railing against partisan politics.

“I see a world in which if you’re a Democrat everything is anti-Trump, and if you’re a Republican, everything is anti-Democrat,” Sen. Chapman said. “We’ve got to get back to the middle ground and I don’t see that happening. I see increased taxes in the state of Washington. I see homelessness not getting better. I see small businesses being hurt because we’re not working together. Right now our politics are broken. I say all of that and look to myself, my actions. I took votes that I don’t believe helped the district, and I own that. I assume everybody in this room is upset at the six-cent gas tax, but you can’t be upset at the bipartisan process. When will the two parties decide it is not in our best interest to fight together, it’s in our best interest to do what’s right for the people? I am insanely pessimistic about the future of our country right now because, to me, it doesn’t feel like the United States of America. It feels like red states and blues states, red counties and blue counties and we don’t listen to each other enough.”

A packed house at the Greater Grays Harbor, Inc., Business Forum Lunch: Legislative Wrap-Up at the Rotary Log Pavilion in Aberdeen listens to lawmakers recap the 2025 Washington state legislative session.