Stop the Tyranny: Protecting Washington's Small Businesses

Olympia recently pushed legislation that would give the Attorney General’s Office unprecedented, unchecked power to demand endless records from small businesses and local city governments.

They didn’t offer to pay for the massive legal bills this would cause. They just expected you—the taxpayer and the business owner—to cover the cost of their investigations.

The Real Cost to Job Creators

This isn't about reasonable accountability or standard legal practice. This is about enabling what amounts to a state-sponsored fishing expedition.

When a government agency is allowed to bypass established procedures under the Public Records Act, they can demand thousands of pages of documents without clear cause. For a massive corporation with an army of lawyers, that’s an inconvenience. For a local mom-and-pop shop or a small city council, it is an impossible financial burden.

It forces local job creators into bankruptcy just to prove they are innocent.

Lubricating Tyranny

As I noted during the floor debate, the State of Washington is already equipped with all the necessary legal tools for proper, lawful investigation. Expanding this power doesn't make us safer—it merely lubricates existing tendencies toward government overreach.

If even a small percentage of state attorneys misuse this immense power, they risk ruining businesses and destroying livelihoods. The immense power of the State of Washington should never be used to compel our businesses into financial ruin without clear, verifiable evidence of wrongdoing.

The Fight on the House Floor

I stood up and fought back against this legislation on the House floor because we cannot allow state lawyers to adopt an 'eye of Sauron' approach over our local communities.

I introduced and fought for multiple amendments designed to shield local budgets from these state demands and to put hard guardrails on the Attorney General's investigatory powers.

We must demand that our state government operates with strict accountability, complete transparency, and a fundamental respect for the taxpayers who fund it. We need leaders in Olympia who will protect the people building our economy, not bureaucrats looking to expand their own authority.