Justin at WWU Town Hall

Recently Justin attended a town hall at WWU with the union membership. As the only one there that night who wasn't a progressive, he was often the lone voice of fiscal restraint.

The Cascade Daily News wrote a story on the event. From the article: "The town hall was organized by Western’s faculty, staff and student worker unions, after years of deep cuts and budget challenges at the university. This year, lawmakers avoided deep cuts to higher education by initiating a fund swap that pulled money from the capital budget to fill a hole in the operating budget. But they’ve noted this isn’t a sustainable solution. Western also receives the lowest per-student funding of any four-year regional university in Washington."

Most candidates spoke out about wanting more taxes rather than looking to prioritize spending.

Again from the article: Justin Pike, the only Republican candidate who appeared at the town hall, disagreed with boosting taxes. He criticized the state’s use of one-time funding for long-term programs and its creation of programs it can’t support.

“What I’ve heard here today is more taxes, more taxes, more taxes. What I can tell you, as a business owner, at some point I can no longer keep those costs,” he said. “We have to focus again on where are we spending the money and are we getting the results that we are expecting from the programs in which we’re funding.”