Washington State Senator Mark Schoesler did not mince words when he sat down with us today for an interview.
“Overall, I think I’ve said I’ll give this session a ‘D’”.
Now that the legislative session is over, Schoesler seemed glad to be back east of the Cascades. What he’s not thrilled with though, is after years of working on a bi-partisan budget, this year’s was largely done behind closed doors, and it’s likely to hit eastern Washingtonians hard.
“The people that are creating jobs are being taxed, the working class is getting hit with new fees for everything under the sun, you just can not give this a passing grade when you know it could have been better.”
He says as a farmer, he’s an eternal optimist, and he does see hope in the new Governor.
“Governor Insleee thought 18 or 20 billion dollars was no big deal from the pockets of the taxpaers…but he could say ‘climate change’ in every sentence. So the average person is more worried about their pocketbooks than they are climate change.”
Besides the state budget, he says the comments his office received this session were largely in regards to firearms and taxes.
Now that the session is over, the next thing on his mind is to get back to the farm, his grand kids, and maybe throw a line in the water.
