Gov. Jay Inslee loves to say that Republicans are the reason none of his climate change bills has passed the Legislature. According to the AP, “Inslee blamed the Senate Republican majority for the failures, saying the party ‘is now in the stranglehold of the oil and gas industry.’” Slight problem with Inslee’s blame game: it was House Democrats, not Senate Republicans, who refused to take a vote on his cap-and-tax scheme. The lack of support by Democrats for Inslee’s agenda comes in at #6 in our Top Ten underreported stories of the year.
Shift highlighted today Inslee’s budget proposal to take money away from the performance audit program. It’s no wonder – Inslee doesn’t want independent performance audits that might find waste and mismanagement in his executive branch agencies.
Finally, Shift examines some waffling by supporters of a revenue-neutral carbon tax initiative. Are they being bought off by California billionaire Tom Steyer?