Dear Friends and Neighbors,

It's a bit ironic that the state's revenue situation continues to shine at the same time when people throughout Washington are struggling with historically high inflation. It's becoming harder and harder for people to make ends meet, especially if you have to drive longer distances and thus have to buy more gas.

My fellow farmers and I are having to pay way more at the pump now than we were six months or a year ago, and there is no end in sight. As I said in a recent Ritzville Adams County Journal story, diesel prices have increased more than a dollar just since the start of the war in Ukraine. Higher fuel prices are also adding to the cost of doing business in every other economic sector, especially delivery people, truck drivers and others whose jobs require them to spend a lot of time behind the wheel. And of course, the higher prices are eating into the budgets of families, and they need relief. Now.

That is why I'm glad that Sen. John Braun, my successor as Senate Republican leader, earlier this week issued a statement calling for a special legislative session this year to suspend the state gas tax. This follows a recent report from the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council indicating that state-revenue collections are running more than $255 million above what it projected in February.

Part of Senator Braun's statement reads:

"State government's financial picture keeps getting better while the affordability crisis keeps getting worse. If you're younger than 40, you have never had to contend with an inflation rate this high. Higher costs for food, gas, housing and energy are predictably harder on gig-economy and hourly-wage workers, and older people with fixed incomes. For younger people looking to become first-time homeowners or start a family, it's a real shock – and the Democrats don't seem to have any useful answers.

"Republicans offered idea after idea during this year's session for helping families with the rising cost of living. In spite of a 15-billion-dollar budget surplus we couldn't get our Democratic colleagues to agree. They just poured most of those billions into making government even larger.

"Right before the Legislature adjourned in early March, the current majority said no to a Republican proposal to suspend the 49.4-cent state gas tax through the end of 2022. Fortunately, the latest revenue report is keeping that opportunity alive. If Democrats would just drop their resistance to providing inflation relief, we could easily meet in a one-day, remote special session to suspend the regressive gas tax and maybe also consider a veto override or two."

Considering how state government continues to see money flood its coffers, the Legislature certainly could suspend the gas tax temporarily without hurting existing services and programs. Doing so would help motorists at a time when so many really need it.

-Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-9, Ritzville