washington business
Congress passed the first tax reform bill since Ronald Reagan ’ s presidency . What does that victory mean for Washingtonians ?
Congressman Dave Reichert
was to have a “ heart of a servant .” Building on that heart of a servant , you build trust ; you ’ re honest with people . You build on honesty with integrity and now you have a team built on the heart of a servant . All three of our offices — two district offices and our congressional office — operate under that heart of a servant mentality . That has been our strength . It ’ s about following up with a phone call . But , you don ’ t stop there , you ask how you can be of further help . And , if we ’ re not the ones who can help , we ’ re going to find the person they need to talk to . It all points back to trying to make life better for the people we serve .
I ’ m really excited about this . Those of us who have been on the committee for a while worked very hard on this issue . So , all the rhetoric we hear about how this tax reform was done in two or three weeks , or that is was rushed through , it was seven years of work going through the tax code line by line . People need to know that effort meant working through weekends , flying back early and leaving late and giving up family time . This has been a very long , tedious , thorough and well thought out process to finally come to an agreement , and the benefits are going to be worth the effort we put in it . You know some of the details : the corporate rate goes down to 21 percent , which happened on Jan . 1 ; and , doubles the current exemption from the death tax . There are so many benefits for small businesses , such as full expensing . And , the way we structured the individual along with the small business rate , it provides much more revenue for small-business owners to fold back into their businesses and create more jobs . We ’ re already hearing a lot from some of the larger companies about how they ’ re providing more benefits for their employees and putting more money back into the business , so they can make more products and hire more people . And , they ’ re raising wages for workers . Speaking about Washington state , there is going to be so many benefits related to the new federal tax code to energize businesses to create more products and more jobs . But , states have got to do their part , too . In the state of Washington , we have some laws that are hindering small businesses . I just spoke with some of the smaller orchardists here in Washington state and they ’ re saying that the regulatory packages passed in the state , minimum wage and paid leave law , for example , create an additional burden . Some of these businesses are going to be driven out of the state because it is not business friendly . I ’ m not saying that everything that Washington state does is bad , but that initiative [ 1433 ], is particularly hard on the smaller businesses and makes it harder for them to keep their businesses afloat . congressman dave reichert at a glance
Born in Detroit Lakes , Minn ., U . S . Rep . Dave Reichert is the eldest of seven siblings . His family moved to Washington state in 1951 . Reichert attended Kent Meridian High School . He graduated with an A . A . degree from Concordia Lutheran College in Portland , Ore ., where he played football and met his wife of 47 years , Julie .
From 1971 through 1976 , Reichert was a member of the U . S . Air Force Reserve . In 1972 , Reichert joined the King County Sheriff ’ s Office and in 1997 he became the first elected sheriff in 30 years . Along with being elected to his first term in Congress in 2004 , Reichert also received the prestigious National Sheriffs ’ Association ’ s “ Sheriff of the Year ” award . He is a two-time Medal of Valor Award recipient from the King County Sheriff ’ s Office . He authored the book , “ Chasing the Devil ,” which chronicles the team ’ s 19-year hunt for the notorious Green River Killer .
After seven terms in the U . S . House of Representatives serving the 8th Congressional District , which includes the eastern sections of King and Pierce counties as well as Kittitas , Chelan and Douglas counties , Reichert will retire from office when his two-year term concludes at the end of the year .
The Reicherts currently live in Auburn . They have three grown children , Angela , Tabitha and Daniel , and six grandchildren . spring 2018 23