This week’s Newsmaker Interview is with House Republican Caucus Chair Paul Harris of Vancouver. Representative Harris has served in the legislature since 2011, after previously serving 10 years on the Evergreen School Board in Clark County.  Among Representative Harris’s observations is that Governor Inslee could have resumed in-person education sooner for students across our state if he had included teachers earlier on the COVID vaccination list.  Harris also believes the goal of equitably balancing state taxes is a good goal, yet the Democrats’ proposals do not seek balance, rather they are “just adding more taxes and the government is spending more.” (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Despite learning that the state will be receiving $3.2 billion in state revenue it did not expect (and an additional $7 billion more from the federal government’s latest “bailout”). Democrats and their extreme environmentalist allies want to raise taxes even more to pay for their expensive (and mostly ineffective) projects.  While we can all agree we want clean air, the current Democrat legislative proposals will not “do much to actually help the environment, but will increase prices, kill jobs, and create more government-study opportunities to figure out how to create more ways to tax Washingtonians.” (Click to read the full Shift article)

After spending much of the past year using “emergency” orders which continue to cause severe economic insecurities for those in the hospitality industry, Governor Inslee has finally done something that will help out restaurant and bar workers: he finally is including them on the list to receive COVID-19 vaccinations.  While hospitality officials were pleased with the news, they were disappointed that those who work for hotels were still kept off the list.

Meanwhile, the governor continued his partisan behavior in his COVID-19 actions by stating “This (immunization) timeline is much faster than we would’ve predicted a couple months ago. And it’s thanks to the tremendous work of the Biden Administration of dramatically increasing the production of these vaccines.” Inslee had previously relied on blaming the Trump Administration for the slow rollout of vaccines in Washington, despite it being the governor’s own (in)actions causing our state to be one of the slowest in the country to implement a workable immunization plan.  Maybe Jay Inslee needs to just stop his divisive partisan rhetoric and start acting like a leader able to bring people together to combat the many challenges that still lie ahead. (News Tribune)

Governor Inslee’s ineffective and costly Low Carbon Fuel Standard might once again be halted by the actions of Senator Steve Hobbs (D – Lake Stevens).  As the Chair of the Senate’s Transportation Committee, Hobbs has stood up to Democrat party bosses in the last two legislative sessions, and stopped similar bad proposals in his committee.  Democrat leadership would like to avoid having the LCFS bill (HB 1091) go through Sen. Hobbs’ committee again this year, but the decision on which additional Senate committee will consider the legislation will be determined by the bill’s language after it passes through its current location of the Senate’s Ways and Means Committee.  Committee assignments for bills are made by Senate Democrat leadership and attorneys for both the Democrat and Republican caucuses.  (Crosscut and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

After more than two months of severe restrictions and fencing around the state Capitol, the public is once again allowed access to portions of the Capitol Campus.  Visitors will be allowed to access the Western portion of the campus, while the East area will remain closed.  Fencing and added security were placed around the Capitol Building after fringe supporters of President Trump marched on the capitol and trespassed at the nearby Governor’s Mansion. (MyNorthwest)

An investigative report by KING5 News reveals that Seattle’s liberal political leadership has been deceptive about the negative environmental impact from its operation of three dams on the Skagit River.  Seattle City Light has used 20-year-old data to tell a false story that its dams are not impeding the migration of Chum, Pink, and Chinook salmon on the river.  Yet current data reveals that all of the salmon species’ population have dramatically decreased in the Skagit downriver from the dams (indeed the current Chum salmon population is only 1.5% of what it was in 2002).   While Seattle liberals have been more concerned about shutting down the dams on the Snake River (where salmon populations are increasing), maybe they should be more interested in focusing on the negative impacts on salmon and Orcas because of their own actions. (KING5 News)

Newly elected Pierce County Sherriff Ed Troyer confronted a Black man who was delivering newspapers in his neighborhood, generating a huge police response.  Troyer followed Sedrick Altheimer in his unmarked SUV allegedly because Troyer thought he was a prowler, yet Altheimer was simply delivering newspapers in his car, as he does six mornings a week.  Troyer blocked Altheimer in a dead-end street and called police dispatch saying the man threatened to kill him.  This resulted in 40 police units responding.  Troyer says he did not know the man was Black until after officers arrived, yet Altheimer claims he stepped out of his car and spoke with Troyer well-before police arrived.  The Pierce County Sheriff’s Department is already surrounded in scandal over its involvement in the controversial death of Manuel Ellis that occurred in March 2020.  Ellis died while in custody of the Tacoma Police, and a Pierce County officer arrived on the scene while Ellis was still alive in custody, and the Sheriff’s office had to later recuse itself from investigating the incident.  (Seattle Times and News Tribune)

Seattle Times business columnist Jon Talton eviscerates Seattle’s political leadership by arguing that while many American major cities are expecting a return of businesses and residents in the post-pandemic era, Seattle is unprepared (and unwilling) to make this happen.  Talton, who is a liberal writer in the tradition of the New York Times’ Paul Krugman, believes that Bellevue will benefit since nearly all of its city councilmembers “have private-sector experience, unlike the activist-heavy résumés of their Seattle counterparts.  Bellevue’s city leadership wants to work with businesses rather than penalizing them.” (Seattle Times)

King County’s Regional Homeless Authority (RHA) has finally found someone to lead the already much-maligned new government agency – and guess what, it’s the person who wrote the job description!  “Social engineer” consultant Marc Dones from Ohio, who was involved in developing the RHA, accepted the position and will start in late April.  Dones was the second person to be offered the position (after another consultant from Atlanta first accepted, and then turned down, the position).  Dones is the first person hired by the new agency, which is replacing two previously dismantled government regional agencies, and comes nearly six years after King County Executive Dow Constantine and disgraced former Seattle Mayor Ed Murray declared the region’s homeless situation an “emergency crisis.”  Since then, billions have been spent on the issue by many different government entities.  Despite hiring many government employees and consultants to think about the crisis, the problem has become far worse, as thousands more suffer the cruel existence of living on the streets, many of whom are suffering from untreated mental illness or chemical dependency. (Seattle Times)

The Grant County Commission has done what Washington Democrats refuse to do, and made it illegal to knowingly possess illegal narcotics. The commission was responding to a recent Washington State Supreme Court ruling striking down the state’s drug possession law because it did not require proof that the person knowingly possessed the drugs.  Grant County Sheriff Tom Jones said, “The State Supreme Court made a decision that was not in the best interest of Washington State or individual counties. With the legislature failing to act, I am proud of our Grant County Commissioners for seeing the importance to still make possession of narcotics illegal by the passing of a county ordinance.” (KREM)

Senator Mark Schoesler (R – Ritzville) stated that the implementation of new overtime pay regulations could impact the number of jobs in the state’s agriculture industry.  Schoesler, who is a fifth-generation wheat farmer, said if the additional state mandated costs make the state’s products  less competitive, then the farmers will start to look into automation to keep costs down.  Schoesler also argued the farm workers often receive additional benefits, like housing and transportation, which need to be included in determining appropriate wage scales for farm workers. (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

After the Seattle City Council slashed the police department’s budget last year, which led to nearly 200 officers volunteering to leave the force, councilmembers (many of whom campaigned for office on INCREASING the police budget) are currently looking to cut the department’s budget even further.  Clueless councilmembers appear to be oblivious to the skyrocketing crime rate and the mass exodus of families and businesses from the city, as they allow radical political ideology to dictate their moves.  Sadly, the Democrats in the legislature are taking guidance from Seattle, as they seek to place similar constraints on law enforcement departments across the state. (Click to read complete Shift Article)

Thousands of Shift readers have participated in the first two rounds of the Madness in Olympia tournament, and we are down to the championship match-up to determine what has been the Democrat’s 2021 Worst Legislative Idea.  Play today and help decide whether a State Income Tax on Capital Gains (SB 5096) or Eliminating Police Resources (HB 1054) is to earn this dubious crown from Shift readers. Share with your friends.  We will officially crown the winner next week. (Click to participate in Shift’s Madness in Olympia tournament)

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