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Dear Friends and Neighbors,
The 2025 legislative session has wrapped up, and I want to keep you in the loop on what happened, what we fought for, what we stopped, and what it means for our communities here in the 35th District. It was a tough session, but we worked hard to protect your rights, push back on irresponsible spending, and deliver real wins for our communities.
Here’s a quick recap of where things stand:
A Record-Breaking Budget with a Massive Price Tag
Democrats passed a $78 billion operating budget—the largest in state history—and it’s paired with Washington’s biggest tax hike ever. As the ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, I pushed back hard, but the final plan was written behind closed doors with no Republican input and little time for public review.
While the budget did include a few good things, like $100 million for law enforcement, overall, it is an irresponsible budget that continues many of the bad budgeting habits of the past that got us into a deficit to begin with.
This budget increases spending by $6 billion, despite a multi-billion-dollar shortfall. It’s the fourth straight budget that spends more than the state brings in, paid for by nearly $10 billion in new taxes over four years. This budget taxes the joy out of Washington. Families will feel it in higher fees for hunting, fishing, liquor, and even state parks. Democrat budget writers strip money away from single moms and cut funding for critical services like foster care programs and support for people with disabilities. Still, they manage to find millions to pay for health care and legal services for undocumented immigrants and a reparations study.
Here’s a quick look at the major tax bills they passed:
- House Bill 2049 – Raises local school levy caps by 55%, effectively hiking property taxes.
- House Bill 2081 – Across-the-board business tax increases plus additional punitive business tax surcharges on certain industries.
- House Bill 2077 – Adds a “Tesla tax” on zero-emission credit trading.
- Senate Bill 5814 – Expands the sales tax to digital services, security services and nicotine products used to quit smoking.
- Senate Bill 5813 – Increases capital gains and estate taxes.
- Senate Bill 5794 – Ends tax incentives for gold, energy assistance and storage services.
This isn’t sustainable budgeting. It’s a burden on working families.
Watch: Rep. Travis Couture slams Democrats’ irresponsible budget
On the bright side, due to fierce pushback from Republicans and the new governor, the final budget only included about half of the more than $20 billion in new taxes Democrats originally proposed.
Protecting Parental Rights
Republicans fought to uphold the Parental Bill of Rights passed last year. The Democrats’ House Bill 1296 aimed to weaken it, but after intense debate, we secured a key win: schools must now immediately notify parents if their child is sexually abused by school staff. Unfortunately, other common-sense protections were blocked, including:
- Requiring schools to offer same-sex bathrooms and locker rooms to protect privacy, especially for girls.
- Giving parents more rights to view curriculum.
- Banning pornographic materials.
- Forcing schools to tell parents if they allow students to leave campus without permission.
A House Republican investigation found that over 70% of school districts have these self-excused absence secrecy policies on the books, but parents may never know unless they ask. That’s dangerous.
Parents deserve transparency. This fight is far from over.
Difficult Setbacks
Two of the worst bills passed by the Democrat majority this session were rent control and providing unemployment benefits for striking workers. These are terrible policies that will exacerbate our housing crisis and harm business, education, and more.
The rent control bill caps annual rent increases at the lesser of 10% or 7% plus inflation. This will lead landlords to increase rents by the amount allowable every year and disincentivize developers further, shrinking our already short housing supply. Studies have shown that while this bad policy helps some tenants in the short term, it ultimately hurts affordability, limits tenant mobility and fuels gentrification.
The bill providing unemployment for striking workers is another big blow for Washington state. It provides up to six weeks of unemployment benefits, which will encourage more workers to go on strike and result in higher costs for businesses.
Defending the Second Amendment
This session, the majority party launched yet another wave of anti-Second Amendment bills. We stood firm and stopped some of the worst, including attempts to expand gun-free zones and impose new taxes on law-abiding gun owners. Starting in May 2027, Washingtonians will need a state-issued permit to purchase a firearm — and to qualify, they must complete a certified training course that includes live-fire exercises. Here’s the problem: that training doesn’t even exist at scale in our state yet. This is not about safety, it’s about control. The cost of the permit and training required to exercise their Constitutional rights amounts to an illegal poll tax. House Bill 1163 is an unconstitutional roadblock to your fundamental right. If the majority party wants to change the Constitution, there’s a process for that, but passing restrictive laws to circumvent that process is offensive and wrong.
Stopping Bad Bills
This year, over 1,800 bills were introduced in the House — and most were bad ideas from the majority party. Thanks to strong Republican pushback, only 261 made it across the finish line. That means we successfully stopped dozens of dangerous proposals that would have hurt public safety, undermined local control, and put criminals ahead of victims.
Here are just a few of the worst bills we blocked:
- House Bill 1380 – Would have banned cities from clearing homeless encampments.
- House Bill 1125 – Made it easier for judges to slash sentences for convicted criminals.
- House Bill 1399 – Undermined local control over law enforcement agencies.
- House Bill 1189 – Allowed unsupervised volunteers with prior felony convictions in schools.
One of the worst was Senate Bill 5296, which would’ve made it harder to hold violent juvenile offenders accountable. It raised the bar for sending youth to juvenile rehab, expanded diversion for serious crimes, and forced courts to hold mid-sentence release hearings. It would have overburdened our courts and made our communities less safe. Republicans stood firm and stopped it.
Protecting Communities from Sexually Violent Predators
This session, we made progress on protecting communities from the state’s most dangerous sex offenders. While our larger reform bill (House Bill 1451) stalled, the good news is House Bill 1457, our bill requiring sexually violent predators released from McNeil Island to wear advanced GPS ankle monitors, passed and is now law. These devices are tamper-proof, track movements in real time, and notify victims if an offender is nearby. This is a big step forward in keeping communities safe. I also passed a bipartisan bill that closes SVP supervision loopholes and makes it harder for courts to release SVPs. And our push to fully reform the SVP system is far from over, so stay tuned as we bring our reform bill back in 2026.
Stopping Needless Child Fentanyl Deaths
My fight to stop the needless deaths of children from fentanyl continued this session, but sadly, once again, it fell on deaf Democrat ears. House Bill 1092 – my bill that makes it easier for courts to remove children from homes where parents are actively using hard drugs like fentanyl and meth once again failed to get a hearing even as we saw continued child deaths from fentanyl in homes with addicted parents. It is outrageous and will not stop fighting to protect these innocent children.
Despite our best efforts, the Democrat majority allowed zero legislation to combat the fentanyl crisis that continues to grip Washington state.
Standing Up for Rainier School
This session, Democrats introduced a bill to close Rainier School by 2027 — a move that would have displaced residents with profound developmental disabilities and eliminated hundreds of local jobs. Republicans pushed back hard, warning the plan lacked a clear transition, failed to guarantee new placements, and gave only vague promises to caregivers. Experts said it could even lead to resident deaths.
The proposal was so extreme that every Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, where I serve as ranking member, walked out in protest — a rare move, but necessary.
Thanks to tough negotiations, we secured a better outcome. Rainier will stay open indefinitely. Residents can remain as long as they choose, and anyone who leaves voluntarily can return if needed. Caregivers’ jobs are safe. I am honored to have played a role in protecting vulnerable people who deserve stability and compassionate care.
A Win for Special Education
We also scored a big win for special education. This session, we passed Senate Bill 5263 to finally remove the cap on special education funding, which I have long believed was unconstitutional. As a dad of three kids with IEPs, this one hit close to home. Fully funding special education starts with removing barriers like this. I’m proud to say the bill passed unanimously and it will make a real difference for students and schools across the state.
Delivering for the 35th District
We’re proud to share that this year’s capital and transportation budgets include major wins for our communities, thanks to strong bipartisan teamwork and local partnerships.
Millions are headed to the 35th District to fund real improvements you’ll see and feel: safer roads, more reliable utilities, affordable housing support, and investments in jobs, youth programs, and public safety.
Capital Budget Highlights:
- North Mason electrical upgrades
- Youth community center funding
- Water system upgrades in Mason County
- Expanded juvenile rehabilitation
- Western Kitsap forest restoration
Transportation Wins:
- Belfair Bypass (SR 3 Freight Corridor) remains on track
- SR 3 widening through Gorst moves forward
I’m proud to help deliver these long-term investments that will bring results that matter for our communities.
Travis Couture
