Our Newsmaker Interview is with the Senate Republican Caucus Chair Senator Judy Warnick. The second-term senator from Moses Lake owns a family farm and small business. She is the Ranking Republican on the Senate’s Agriculture, Water, Natural Resources & Parks Committee and serves on the powerful Senate Ways & Means Committee. The senator provides her thoughts on the many important issues currently before the 2022 Legislature, including those seeking corrections to the failed policies the Democrat lawmakers had previously enacted (“WA Cares,” agriculture wage mandates, “police reform,” vaccine mandates, and abuse of emergency powers).  Senator Warnick was critical of the Inslee Administration for its decision to refuse help from Kittitas County to reopen Snoqualmie Pass, leaving tens of thousands of Washington residents (including herself) stranded and unable to commute. (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Sign the petition to tell legislators they should repeal Democrats’ poorly crafted Long-Term Care Payroll tax which forces hundreds of thousands of Washington workers to pay for benefits they will be ineligible to receive.  Democrat state lawmakers are ignoring calls to repeal their deeply flawed – and unpopular – Long-Term Care payroll tax. Instead, they only want to delay implementation by 18 months. By delaying, Democrats get to keep their tax (while also rapidly increasing the size of state government) while avoiding the inevitable fall-out from businesses and workers until after the 2022 elections.  (Sign petition to repeal the Long-Term Care tax by clicking here)

As Washington Democrat lawmakers seek to restrict the rights of citizens to pass or repeal laws, they want to spend more than a half-million tax dollars to help a few more county inmates vote.  One of the Democrats’ most disturbing priorities for the 2022 legislative session is to eliminate the ability of Washington citizens to either pass or repeal laws through the initiative and referendum process. HB 1727 will remove initiatives and referendums during odd-numbered years. Why would Democrats want to do this? Because liberal voters cannot be bothered to vote in “off-year” elections while moderates and conservatives take their voting responsibility more seriously. Thus moderate laws often are passed while wacky liberal laws are repealed.

While liberal lawmakers seek to restrict the rights of citizens to determine state laws, they also want to make it even easier for suspected and convicted criminals to vote (for those few inmates, the Democrats’ 2021 “police reform” bills failed to release from jail).  Governor Inslee’s proposed budget includes $628,000 to “improve voter awareness, registration, and voting” in ten county jail systems.  This comes after the Democrats in the 2021 legislative session (HB 1078) gave convicted felons who had yet to complete their sentence (such as pay financial restitution to their victims or complete community service) the right to vote. (Crosscut and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Unbelievably, the Democrats in Olympia are already proposing to dramatically increase their income tax on capital gains even before the court case on whether it is constitutional is even heard.  Democrat Senator June Robinson (Everett), the Vice Chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee, has sponsored legislation (SB 5926) to double the 7% tax rate on some income to 14%.  This comes after many Democrats during the 2021 debate on the income tax proposal (SB 5096) promised that the tax would not be increased.  Yet, before the income tax is implemented and even before the courts rule if it is legal, Democrats already want to double the amount of money they want to take from individuals to pay for their rapid expansion of state government.  A Douglas County Superior Court is set for a preliminary summary judgment hearing on the income tax on capital gains on February 4^th. (Washington Legislature Bill Summary and Washington Policy Center)

The 2022 Roanoke Conference has released its agenda for its 13^th annual gathering in Ocean Shores, taking place during the January 28^th – 30^th weekend.  The agenda is full of interesting panels of legislators and experts discussing current hot topics such as Critical Race Theory, public safety, redistricting, government overreach, and Afghanistan (led by Congressman Dan Newhouse). Online registration ends tonight (at midnight).  You will still be able to register at the door next weekend for a slightly higher price ($177.66). (Roanoke Conference)

Highly respected former State Representative Gigi Talcott, who spent 14 years as a leader on education issues in the legislature, had very strong criticism for Senator Manka Dhingra’s (D – Redmond) bill to reduce in-person instruction for students.  The legislation (SB 5735) would reduce by 20% (or one day a week) the amount of time a student would be required to be instructed by a teacher.  Talcott said, “I’ve read and researched hundreds, literally thousands of bills in my 14 years in the House Ed…and I think that Senate Bill 5735 holds the distinction of being the single most disastrous for disadvantaged students.” (MyNorthwest and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

In the Seattle Police Officers Guild podcast “Hold the Line,” SPOG President Mike Solan breaks down the January 5^th incident which resulted in the killing of K9 officer Jedi and the suspect. He also explains how the Democrats’ 2021 “police reform” bill and the Seattle City Council’s “defunding police” measures reduced options available to police which could have deescalated the tragic occurrence.  President Solan reviews the body and vehicle camera video of the incident in which a man carrying a machete, the suspect of a home break-in, is chased by police. The suspect is seen running into traffic before stabbing the K9 officer and his handler (who is stabbed in the face). Another officer shoots the suspect to protect the life of his fellow officer.

Solan asserts that the Democrats’ 2021 “police reform” legislation took away some of the non-lethal tools the officers need. The Seattle City Council’s slashing of the police department’s budget took away resources needed (i.e., police officers) to contain the subject. Solan says, “The biggest hurdle right now for law enforcement is containing persons in crisis who are dynamically moving with an edge weapon (knife). This is compounded by the lack of officers that we currently have on the streets.  Solan reports that while studies indicate Seattle’s proper police staffing level should be around 1500 officers, currently, the city has only 880 deployable officers. He notes Boston (with a population of 684,000 within 90 square miles) has more than 2,000 officers, which is 2.5 times the number Seattle (with a population of 725,000 within 84 square miles) currently has. (Hold the Line Podcast/YouTube)

Farmers are united in their criticism over Governor Inslee’s latest attack on the state’s agriculture community with his proposal to make farmers partially fund the planting of trees along the banks of streams while denying them the ability to grow their crops or feed their livestock on the land.   The governor’s mandatory riparian (banks of rivers and streams) buffer bill (HB 1838) would expand the region around streams for the current 50 – 100 feet to 100 – 249 feet.  It would also require the farmers to pay for 30% of the cost of planting additional trees along the banks and all of the future maintenance of the area. One dairy farmer said, “This bill flat out removes my right to farm 480 acres of my land.”

While the governor consulted with his campaign contributors in the tribal governments, he did not consult with anyone in the agriculture community or with local governments who are being asked to enforce this measure.  The bill allows the tribes to determine if the new buffer zones should be imposed on their lands, while those in the state’s agriculture community are not given the same opportunity.  Agriculture leaders are upset that the governor’s contentious actions have caused an unnecessary division between farmers and native communities. (Capital Press and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

BABYLON BEE FRIDAY!

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