Washington Business Fall 2017 | Legislative Review & Vote Record | Page 20

2017 legislative review
A Missed Opportunity for Manufacturing
Jason Hagey
Gov. Jay Inslee’s use of the veto pen to wipe out a 40 percent tax reduction for
manufacturers was a blow for small- and medium-sized employers, particularly
in rural areas, and it could have implications for future negotiations.
Gov. Jay Inslee uses his line-item veto to remove a bipartisan agreement on business and occupation tax relief
for manufacturers as he signs the state budget.
When Gov. Jay Inslee signed an order on July 7 undoing a tax relief measure that legislators
had just approved a few days earlier — with strong bipartisan votes in the both the House
and Senate — it triggered an angry backlash from legislators.
With the stroke of his pen, the governor blew up a complicated budget
Since 2000, the state’s
manufacturing sector agreement that lawmakers spent months negotiating, a move that could have
50,000 jobs. “Negotiating a budget is already an enormously difficult process that requires
has lost more than
lasting implications.
working in good faith,” lead budget negotiator Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia,
said in a press release. “Vetoing part of the agreement will seriously undermine
our ability to govern.”
Rep. JT Wilcox, R-Yelm, took to Facebook following the veto, calling it “an
immense mistake that will have serious repercussions for the state and the reasonable
functioning of government.”
The governor’s veto didn’t just upset legislators. It also sent the message to small-
and medium-sized manufacturers in rural Washington that their challenges aren’t fully
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