Inslee budget: Equity not top financial priority

Re: “Inslee announces new package of equity proposals,” (TNT, 12/16).

First off let me state that I am not a far-right nutcase. I voted for Gov. Jay Inslee twice.

But I believe he has his priorities wrong. Thousands of small business owners in Washington are losing their businesses due to COVID-19 and the governor wants to spend $365 million to address equity issues.

That money (and even more) needs to be allocated to helping small businesses and the workers who have lost their jobs or had their hours reduced.

If the governor wants to address equity issues, he could possibly set aside part of the monies to go to minority businesses.

He wants to increase the size of government when the business sector, which pays taxes for that government, is decreasing in size. This is ludicrous.

I know Washington has problems with equity, but now is not the time to address it with increased expenditures. These problems will have to be addressed by administrative changes internally until the state returns to economic stability.

This story was originally published December 19, 2020 at 10:16 AM with the headline "Inslee budget: Equity not top financial priority."