Perry Dozier

Dear Neighbor, If you’ve been hearing state government is in financial trouble and big tax increases are the only answer, I have good news. Even if you haven’t heard a word about Olympia’s budget situation… the news is still good. This week the two senators who serve as the Senate...

This past week I had the pleasure of spending a few minutes with a group from the Girl Scouts of Eastern Washington and Northern Idaho. There were so many visitors that we brought them into the Senate Republican caucus room, which is where we meet to go over bills and...

I don’t believe unemployment benefits are meant to be paid to people who walk off the job and go on strike, yet on Friday the majority Democrats on the Senate budget committee endorsed a bill to allow that. To view the public hearing that led to the vote on SB...

Dear Neighbor, When legislators talk about the obstacles to increasing the supply of affordable housing in our state, the list always includes — at least for Republicans — the government regulations that make property development more complicated and costly than it needs to be. But there are forces outside government...

Dear Neighbor, The results of a recent survey of 600 Washington voters showed up in my inbox earlier this month. Most of the survey questions had to do with state spending, one way or another. That makes sense considering how years of overspending have finally caught up with the majority...

Feb. 7, 2025 Dear Neighbor, In each of the past two years, the state Senate has tried to make it a crime for an adult to expose a child to fentanyl. Both times, the House refused to allow its members to vote on our bill — which is unconscionable, considering...

Jan. 31, 2025 Members of Teamsters 117 work hard at the Washington State Penitentiary to keep three groups of people safe: offenders, the public and the workforce. I sat down with them here at the Capitol on Wednesday and listened to their views, particularly about staffing and safety. Even though...

Click here or on the image for my second report from the 2025 legislative session. It looks at a pair of salmon-related bills I’ve introduced, and a very disappointing effort by some on the majority side to undermine Washington’s new parental-rights law, less than a year after they helped create...

Having trouble viewing this email? View it as a Web page. Jan. 17, 2025 Dear Neighbor, The 2025 legislative session is under way. Between now and April 27, the Senate and House of Representatives will work on a whole lot of policy issues – some of them familiar, and some...