Patty Kuderer is seeking to defend her position as the state’s 48th Legislative District senator after she was appointed to the position after previous state Sen. Cyrus Habib won the lieutenant governor position in Olympia. She was previously the 48th’s Position 1 representative.

Kuderer is a lawyer by trade, and she hopes to work within precedents to achieve the No. 1 goal of legislators in the state house — fully fund schools.

She said expanding a property tax freeze system and implementing an estate tax would help poorer Washingtonians while taxing more affluent ones (according to Kuderer, such a tax would impact just 30,000 residents statewide). She said the Republicans in Olympia were looking toward a much more regressive tax structure.

“We need a complete tax structure overhaul,” she said. “We need to reduce property tax and reform the (Business and Occupation) tax, it’s a small business killer.”

She said taxing Internet sales would be a good idea, but said that a state income tax would only ever be a possibility with widespread public support and a state constitutional amendment.

Kuderer said that a public bank, much like what North Dakota has run since 1919, would be able to handle the state’s $3.2 billion debt services and would be beholden to the taxpayers.

“It would have to be set up right, but cities, counties and (planned unit developments) would be able to use it.” she said. “With it, you could build infrastructure in rural areas and when you pay it back, you pay yourself.”

She said that leadership in Washington, D.C. was not working for the country, and that proactive solutions on a statewide level were necessary for smart governance.