Through the eyes of state Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, Washington state's 2026 legislative session was full of many disappointments, but also some glimmers of hope — especially where local project funding is concerned.
In a post-session interview with The Chronicle just a day after the Legislature adjourned from its 2026 session, Braun painted a blurry picture of the path forward for state
Republicans seeking to halt the implementation of an income tax on high earners and cut state spending.
The path includes at least one, if not multiple, legal challenges and a voter initiative to strike it down.
More specific to Lewis County, Braun weighed in on ongoing state issues that continue to impact the area, including tort and liability reform, ongoing overcrowding at Green Hill School and public defense funding. He also touched on a successful session by 20th District lawmakers to bring capital budget funding to the district for projects from Ridgefield to Centralia.
Battling the “millionaire’s tax”
Braun sees the upcoming effort to challenge the recently passed millionaire’s tax as “the big issue” facing Republicans and argues it comes with major implications for another major battle ground: the state budget.
“You get the state that you fight for, and we're going to keep fighting for a better outcome,” Braun said.
While Braun was very clear that he is not involved in organizing opposition to the income tax outside the Legislature, either through the courts or a ballot initiative, he did not hesitate to weigh in on the ensuing battles.
A battle in the courts is certain to come from at least one, if not many, groups in the state. A ballot initiative is also expected, but the logistics for who pays for it and how organizers approach the effort is more complicated.
Much like what majority Democrats have suggested, Braun expects a legal battle will play out over the next few years, eventually making its way to the state’s supreme court. The senator expects groups like Project 42, the Washington Policy Center and Freedom Foundation to lead the charge. He also anticipates former Washington state Attorney General Rob McKenna to be front and center in that effort.
Braun is confident that lower courts will side against the implementation of the high-earner income tax based on legal precedents in the state. The real challenge will be the state's supreme court and how it weighs in on the matter, which Braun depicts as unpredictable at best.
“It’s a wild card,” Braun said. “If they care about the constitution, then we’re in good shape.”
The expected result could also change drastically depending on the outcome of four supreme court elections coming this cycle. Braun expects those four races to be close. He added that he thinks they have the potential to bring a “rebalance of our state supreme court.”
According to Braun, the effort to gather signatures and put forward a valid voter initiative to strike down the income tax on high earners could cost between $20 million to $40 million, and organizers are unsure as of right now who will foot the bill. Let’s Go Washington, backed by Seattle-based hedge fund manager Brian Heywood, has built a reputation in recent years for funding and organizing conservative-aligned voter initiatives.
Other concerns over how to approach a voter initiative include the phrasing of the voter initiative, gathering signatures and which election cycle maximizes the turnout of supportive voters.
Braun said he believes the voter initiative process will complicate matters. The phrasing of voter initiatives has often been another site for legal battles over the clarity and scope of initiatives. Counterintuitively, a voter initiative will likely require a yes vote to oppose the millionaire’s tax instead of a simple yes or no referendum on supporting the tax.
Green Hill School
This was another legislative session, but when it comes to juvenile rehabilitation reform and its impacts on Green Hill School, it's a similar story. In the 2025 session, the Legislature came close to passing two bills, one bill sponsored by each party and taking different approaches to solving overcrowding.
On one side, a bill from state Sen. Claire Wilson, D-Auburn, sought to speed up the process of transitioning juveniles to community custody and back into the world. On the other side, a bill sponsored by Braun made it easier to transfer residents over the age of 18 to the Department of Corrections if they are not engaging in services or to request a transfer.
Both bills died at the last minute as Republicans refused to support Wilson’s bill and Democrats in turn withheld support for Braun’s bill.
This year, Democrats proposed another juvenile rehabilitation reform bill that revisited the issue and borrowed language from both the previous bills. Unlike the previous bills that nearly crossed the finish line, this one died in the rules committee and didn't make it to the floor for a vote. According to reporting from The Washington State Standard, Speaker of the House Rep. Laurie Jinkins said the bill gained some supporters, but ultimately didn’t have the votes.
Braun argues the bill failed to advance because its sponsors refused to remove the more controversial aspects and move forward with elements that had more widespread support.
“Why would you not back off and say, OK, I get these parts are too controversial,” Braun said. “Let's at least get the basic stuff done so we can control the population.”
Tort liability and public defense
Two more apparent crises in the state did not see solutions during this year's session, and both have major impacts on the financial state of city and county governments. The Legislature went into this session with hopes of addressing the rising costs to pay settlements for lawsuits against the state and for public legal defense.
Both issues have been felt across the state, and Lewis County is no exception. Both the rising insurance premiums the county pays because of the higher frequency of lawsuits and the higher cost of providing public defense because of newly implemented caseload limits are cause for concern for the Lewis County budget.
On the tort liability front, Braun and most of his party members supported Senate Bill 6239 after a stipulation to include oversight hearings was added to the bill. The bill called for legal arbitration for older liability cases brought against the state. The bill passed the Senate with more support from Republicans than Democrats, but ultimately died in the House Civil Rights and Judiciary Committee.
Braun didn’t weigh in on public defense funding, but language originally included in the newly passed millionaire’s tax would have increased state funding for public defense by millions until it was taken out at the last minute. For previous reporting on the millionaire’s tax and public defense funding by The Chronicle, visit https://tinyurl.com/wshn2tb7.
Capital budget wins for local projects
In no place did Lewis County win bigger this session than in the supplemental capital budget, which included funding for a list of projects across the 20th District.
The supplemental capital budget brought home millions of dollars for 10 projects across the 20th District, at least seven of which are in Lewis County. Lawmakers from the 20th District, Braun and Reps, Peter Abbarno, R-Chehalis, and Ed Orcutt, R-Kalama, also managed to bring home funding to start the relocation process for the Bob Oke Game Farm. For previous reporting on the game farm and other capital budget projects, visit https://tinyurl.com/5xahj9b2.
