Steve Tharinger

It has been an honor to serve as you State Representative the last four years, working to strengthen our rural health care system (improving medicaid reimbursement rates for our hospitals), maintaining and creating jobs (supporting our mills with tax incentives)and helping make the investments in our communities for the future (capital support for the Carlsborg sewer)

The Legislature faces a real challenge in trying to find additional funding for education; not just for kindergarten through 12th grade which the Supreme Court has ruled it must do, but investing in early learning and higher education. I do not think it is appropriate to sacrifice other health and human services in order to just fund education. Children that don’t have a roof over their head, food to eat or access to health care will not be able to study and learn.

We cannot build community structures of opportunity and well-being if the only tool we use is an ideological hammer that pounds down every revenue option that is presented. We need tools that are sharp and designed for the job at hand, not ones that are dulled by rigid thinking. We need to be open to using tools for the 21st century to build the kind of Washington we all want to live in.

A majority of the State’s economy is a service economy, yet we do not charge sales tax on services and our Business & Occupation tax (B&O) tax rate is extremely low for services. We need to broaden and flatten the tax.

We are one of eight states that does not have a capital gains tax and in this era when stocks and bonds are where all the money is as opposed to earned income, our revenue structure should adjust with thresholds that protect the little guy.

The other area of the State’s revenue structure that needs to be addressed is the millions of dollars we give out in tax breaks that made sense when they were initiated, but are obsolete now because either the business is well established or market conditions have changed.

Just as we as individuals provide revenue to our churches, service clubs or share at our neighborhood potlucks and barbecues, we can come together as a state and do a greater amount of good for more people by reforming our revenue structure and investing in our kids and teachers.

Whether it is the economy, education, health care or the environment, my experience as a County Commissioner and now in the Legislature sets me apart from my opponent. I have developed effective relationships in Olympia, by working in a bipartisan way in the legislature and with local governments, I have been able to find practical solutions to some of the challenges we face on the Peninsula. I would be honored to have your vote this fall to continue working for you in Olympia.

Thomas W. Greisamer

(Greisamer declined to submit a candidate statement.)