Rep. Drew MacEwen represents Washington’s 35th Legislative District and serves as the Assistant Minority Floor Leader, Ranking Minority Member on the House Commerce & Gaming Committee, and Assistant Ranking Minority Member on the House Appropriations Committee.

He joined us the day Gov. Jay Inslee released his 2019-21 budget proposal as a “Wire Insider,” to discuss the impact of taxes in his district.

“The governor has spent the bulk of his career in elected office, and I think that it shows in his lack of touch with what goes on every day in small- and medium-sized businesses. I really wish the governor would spend some time and go to the businesses and talk to them. Because, the policies that we’ve put down from Olympia, the increased burdens that that’s put on businesses, and now his proposals today, with even more taxes on businesses… Go and talk to that mom-and-pop restaurant that maybe has a high grossing amount, but low margins, and they’re making less money than the people that work for him — and now tell them that they need to give up more of that.

And, I really wish that the governor would be in touch more with the people that he’s asking to send more money to Olympia. That, I think, would have a dramatic impact in the way he governs.

In the 35th District, a rural area — it’s all of Mason County, part of Kitsap, and part of Thurston — you know, time and again, it’s, you know, they want to make sure that they can make ends meet. And, it’s making sure that their kids have a quality education, that the parents have an opportunity to have a good-paying job or run a business and be able to make those ends meet, and that, when they need the police or the fire or those public services, that they’re there. And, yet again, the policies… that come out of Olympia, oftentimes, are in direct opposition to that.

And, as an example, there’s a drumbeat to change our transportation tax source from a gas tax to a miles-driven tax scheme — that is yet one more dagger to the heart of the rural economy. And things like that really worry the people that live in the rural areas of this state.”

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