2024 Legislature wrap-up: Republican lawmakers push financial restraint

The final gavel has fallen in Olympia and the Legislature is adjourned. I thought I might wax philosophical about this year's events as I've done in previous columns, but let's start with a high-level accounting of what your state government is doing for you.

Given it's an even-numbered year, our main task was to develop a supplemental budget, making tweaks to the two-year spending plan we adopted last year. Incredibly, our state continues to see ever-increasing tax collections and that's both good and bad news.

The good news is that my Senate Republican colleagues and I pushed for a more rest...