Republican legislative leaders raised objections to Governor Jay Inslee’s latest random and unilateral decision to move three counties (Cowlitz, Pierce, and Whitman) back to Phase 2, and stated this is the failure of Democrats who control the state legislature to “assert the Legislature’s power as a coequal branch of state government.”  Senate Republican Leader John Braun and House Republican Leader JT Wilcox stated that Inslee’s latest non-scientific move was made with no official being included in the process who represents any of the three impacted counties.  Due to the unwillingness of Democrat legislators to take any accountability themselves for addressing COVID-19, the governor is allowed to ignore local officials and other elected representatives and continue his unprecedented one-man rule on matters that impact millions of Washingtonians.

In a joint statement Braun and Wilcox declared, “It’s patently absurd that we’re two weeks away from the end of session and they (Democrat legislators) won’t even discuss it (amending the emergency powers law). Republicans in both chambers proposed solutions weeks ago. We’ve been calling for action and we’re ready to stand up and get our votes on the record in support of unheard voices across Washington.”

Sadly, the “undemocratic” Democrat lawmakers continue to ignore those who believe no governor should hold such power forever, and continue to set a dangerous acceptance level for a dictator, instead of governor, with their actions. (Senator Braun and Representative Wilcox joint statement)

It is interesting to note that while Governor Inslee continues to punish regions of the state for failing to meet his unscientific and arbitrary set of data points, he has yet to provide the infection rates or hospital occupancy levels (or any other figure) for determining when “Phase 4” will occur.  Once again, Inslee is making decisions on his own (and on the fly), without any plan further out than his next press conference, and without regard for the impact on the people he allegedly serves. Not only has Inslee failed to figure out (let alone inform the rest of us) what might come next to make progress on a return to normalcy, but he has yet to say when he might decide to let people in on his plans.  This lack of leadership hurts those who have suffered the most from Inslee’s one-man rule, especially in the hospitality industry.  They must determine inventory levels and staffing requirements for their businesses future, but Inslee doesn’t care about providing them the information to plan ahead.  If he believes “we are all in this together,” then he could start doing his part by planning for a future that doesn’t include him making every decision for the state. (Roadmap to Recovery)

Washington State Auditor Pat McCarthy finally released three reports this afternoon regarding the massive failures of Governor Jay Inslee’s Employment Security Department (ESD).  In total, the audits found that the ESD was responsible for the loss of over $1 Billion, and at least one employee is under criminal investigation.  Some $650 million was lost in the largest heist in Washington State history, when foreign criminals applied for unemployment and the department had disabled the appropriate security measures which could have stopped them. The Auditor’s Office also said that the ESD made an additional $460 million in questionable payments which it has yet to fully investigate.  This is the first of many audits from McCarthy’s office on the problems at ESD.  Last November, McCarthy issued a public warning to officials at ESD for their failure to cooperate in her office’s investigation.  Remember that Suzi LeVine, Inslee’s chosen one to lead the ESD had no experience running a state agency, but was known for raising millions of dollars for Democrat campaigns, at a time when Inslee was getting ready to run for President. To throw salt in the wound, Levine used her moneyed connections to grab a job in the Biden Administration.  Shift will likely have more on this in the coming days as we review the audits. (Seattle Times)

Things are becoming complicated in Olympia, with Democrat legislators making conflicting demands in order to pass major pieces of legislation.   Five Democrat Senators sent a letter to their House colleagues, stating they will only support the Senate’s version of the Low Carbon Fuel Standard legislation (HB 1091) and the LCFS bill is dead if the House makes more changes and it comes back to the Senate.  Among the changes the Senate made to the controversial and costly LCFS bill is that it would only be implemented if accompanied by an expansive (and expensive) transportation funding bill.  This is upsetting to the House sponsor of the LCFS bill, Representative Joe Fitzgibbon (D – Burien) who stated, “The bill as passed by the Senate is not a bill that could be implemented successfully.”

It was interesting to see in the same story a quote from an environmental lobbyist complaining that “the public has yet to be fully engaged” in the legislative process on major environmental bills moving through the Senate.  Yet keeping the public out of the legislative process has been a major Democrat strategy during the 2021 session.  Just consider the Democrats’ tactics have used thus far: keeping up an unnecessary barbed wire fence around the capital building; refusing to hold public hearings on major bills; laughing while rudely cutting off members of the public when they were lucky enough to receive a minute of legislators’ time. Democrats understand that the more the public is involved, the less they will be able to reward their liberal special interest friends with taxpayer money. (Everett Herald, KING5 News, and Shift)

King County Executive Dow Constantine has asked the elected sheriff to resign, in light of her stated disagreement over a wrongful death settlement.  Sheriff Mitzi Johanknecht has stated she plans to serve out the remaining nine months of her term, before the office is no longer elected by the voters and is instead selected by the county executive. Yet perhaps Sheriff Johanknecht should return the favor, and ask that Constantine to resign for his dereliction of duty by refusing to allow federal law enforcement officials to use Boeing Field to transport people who are in the country illegally, or for supporting rioters before they caused millions of dollars of damage to downtown Seattle, or for hiring a stripper to perform at a conference on homeless issues, or for using highly paid sheriff officers as a personal Uber service to visit West Seattle bars in the afternoon, or… (Seattle Times)

First-of-its-kind in the nation legislation that will drive up the cost of food by instituting new overtime pay rules for farmworkers has passed the legislature and awaits the governor’s signature.  The bill (SB 5172) imposes a three-year implementation of the new overtime rules, so you have a little more time to save up for the cost increases that no other state in the country will impose on its citizens.  The bill was initially introduced by Senator Curtis King (R – Yakima) to halt retroactive lawsuits resulting from a controversial Washington State Supreme Court ruling which threw out the previous overtime exception for agriculture businesses. The court’s decision opened the floodgates of workers suing farm operators for years-old overtime pay, despite farmers having followed the wage laws in place.  While the final bill still contains language to halt the retroactive lawsuits, it was heavily amended by liberal urban Democrats to impose a new wage scale.  Since agriculture work is seasonal, with most work is done during a short time window, the Democrats’ amendments will likely result in less pay for most farm workers. Instead of paying a large amount of overtime pay to one set of workers, it may be more cost efficient for farmers to use double shifts of workers. (Pacific Northwest AG Network, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and KING5 News)

• Speculation has been strong over Governor Inslee’s motivation to punish Pierce County with his latest round of unilateral emergency orders. The governor changed his previously set-in-stone COVID metrics last Friday, making Pierce County the only Puget Sound county to be forced back into Phase 2 of Inslee’s random economic punishments.  Many are pointing out that Pierce County Executive Bruce Dammeier is one of the top Republican contenders for Washington governor in 2024, and that the southern portion of the county is represented by another potential contender for the job, Republican House Leader JT Wilcox.  Others have pointed out that Inslee might be fulfilling the 2019 Election night tweet of Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal, who notoriously demanded Democrat lawmakers punish counties which voted for I-976 (the car tab initiative tossed out by the courts and ignored by legislators).  Pierce County was instrumental in the Washington State voter approval of the initiative, by voting nearly 66% to reduce the cost of car tabs. (Reykdal’s Tweet and 2019 Secretary of State Election Returns)
• People have wondered why the Governor did not follow his customary routine of holding a campaign-style press conference to make his COVID-19 announcements yesterday. Could today’s Auditor’s Office report on the massive failures at Inslee’s Employment Security Department have something to do with this?  Inslee has a habit of staying out of the spotlight whenever ESD is in the news, for fear that he might be held accountable for his management (or lack thereof) failures.

Legislation passed in Olympia clearly reveals Democrats’ public safety priorities for 2021. Release felons early from prison, restore felons’ voting rights before they complete their sentences, and make it more difficult for law enforcement to catch those currently committing crimes.  These are the Democrat “public safety” priorities number 1, 2, and 3 which have been jammed through this legislative session. And Democrat lawmakers did this as violent crime is on the rise, and residents are more concerned than ever about public safety. The Democrats have eagerly sacrificed our public safety to increase the number of voters who support their soft-on-crime policies. Even more discouraging – they are not done yet.  The Democrats in Olympia are now pushing legislation to make it legal to possess meth, heroin, and other life-destroying substances. For felons, elections have consequences – and when Democrats win, so do the felons.  (Click link to read full Shift article)

Do you like The Daily Briefing?

Please consider making a contribution to ensure Shift continues to provide daily updates on the shenanigans of the liberal establishment.

Forward this to a friend.  It helps us grow our community and serve you better.

You can also follow SHIFTWA on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

If you feel we missed something that should be covered, email us at [email protected].