Seattle Police Officers Guild (SPOG) President Mike Solan stated that the Democrats’ “police reform” package passed by the 2021 Washington Legislature (and signed by Governor Jay Inslee) and the “defunding” of the police department effort by the Seattle City Council both played a significant role in the death of an individual in crisis and K-9 officer Jedi.  Solan based his assessment from breaking down the body and vehicle camera footage of the January 5^th incident on Seattle’s Beacon Hill, in the SPOG podcast “Hold the Line.”  He describes how the lack of non-lethal options (which were removed by the Democrats’ “police reform” bill) and the lack of enough officers (due to the city council’s slashing of the police department’s budget) were contributing factors in the death of the suspect and the K-9 officer. In response to the Democrats’ poorly crafted 2021 “police reform” package, Republican legislators have proposed nearly 50 bills as part of their “Safe Washington” package to restore public safety as a priority in the state. (Click to read full Shift Article)

A new Washington Policy Center report concludes, “With a balanced budget, billions in reserves, and revenue projections continuing to exceed expectations, the case for broad-based tax relief is overwhelming” The report details two tax measures currently being discussed in the legislature.  The first tax cut proposal (SB 5932) surprisingly comes from Democrat Senator Mona Das (Kent), who is expected to face a difficult re-election this November due to her far-Left voting record in her only term – from support for several tax increases, championing the Democrats’ irresponsible “police reform” package, and pushing the expensive and ineffective energy measures (“Low Carbon Fuels Standard” and “Cap and Trade”) which will dramatically impact low-income workers the most thanks to increasing fuel costs.  Senator Das’ proposal, which has previously been offered many times by Republican lawmakers only to be ignored by the majority Democrats, is to cut the state’s portion of the sales tax from 6.5% to 5.5%.  As soon as it was offered last week, several Republican senators (including Senate Republican Leader John Braun) signed on as co-sponsors of the bill.

Senator Lynda Wilson (R – Vancouver) has introduced a second tax-cut plan (SB 5769) which has received serious attention in Olympia.  Senator Wilson’s plan would cut four major taxes;. 1) Exempt the first $250,000 in assessed primary residence property tax (which would benefit low-income households the most); 2) eliminate the B&O tax on the state’s manufacturing sector (which has lost 75,000 jobs since 2000; 3) remove the state income tax on capital gains (which the courts should rule is unconstitutional); and 4) repeal the poorly developed Long-Term Care payroll tax (which is already expected to require a huge premium increase to become solvent).  A public hearing will be held on Senator Wilson’s bill tomorrow (Tuesday) morning at 8:00 AM.  (Washington Policy Center and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

it is interesting to watch liberal organizations defend the undemocratic measure by Democrat lawmakers to eliminate initiatives and referendums in odd-numbered years.  While liberals often argue truly meaningless and illogical reasons for why they want to remove the rights of citizens to pass or repeal state laws, the real reason is because liberal voters can’t be counted on to vote in odd-numbered years, while moderates and conservatives take their voting responsibilities more seriously.  Thus in odd-numbered years, moderate initiatives and referendums tend to be supported by voters, which often derail the liberals’ various big-government agendas.

The Sightline Institute, a Seattle-based liberal organization supported by wealthy environmental groups and government employee unions, favors the Democrat’s legislation (HB 1727) to remove the citizens’ right to initiatives and referendums in odd-numbered years because the far-Left believes only elections with high voter turnout are valid (basically they are asserting that, only if lazy liberal voters approve a measure should the vote be binding).  Illogically, Sightline argues that odd-numbered year general elections have turnout similar to primary elections (which is not always correct). This argument leads to the obvious logical question, if turnout is poor in primary elections, why doesn’t HB 1727 also do away with primary elections?

Sightline also fails to mention that while HB 1727 removes citizens’ rights to initiatives and referendums, the bill still allows government entities to place tax increases on odd-numbered year ballots.  Also, Sightline, and all other liberal organizations which support HB 1727, have not stated want exact percentage of turnout is necessary for the results to be valid. (Sightline Institute, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Nisqually Valley News)

As union membership in the private sector continues to drop, unions are pushing hard to increase membership in the public (government) sector, including on legislative staffs.  In order to make their case for why legislative staff members need to be unionized, union officials conveniently forget that legislative staff positions are highly sought and are thought to be an excellent entry level position for those seeking to break into a career in politics, public affairs, community relations, and/or communications. A bill (HB 1806) sponsored by Representative Marcus Riccelli (D – Spokane) would give unions the right to organize legislative staffers. We should note, that Representative Riccelli has often received maximum contributions from multiple government unions during his six elections to the House and he himself knows how highly sought legislative staff positions are since he served as a legislative staffer for former Senator Lisa Brown.

It is bad enough that government unions control government workers and kickback millions of dollars into the campaigns of Democrat officials who later get to determine government employees’ wages and benefits. Now they now want to directly control the staffs of legislators who are supposed to represent the public and not the narrow special interests of union bosses. (Spokesman Review, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Washington Public Disclosure Commission)

Democrats continue to push legislation to drive people away from investing and owning rental properties, even as the state’s housing shortage continues to make renting properties more expensive. Democrat Representative Strom Pederson (Edmonds) has proposed legislation (HB 1904) which would force landlords to give 6 month notice for rent increase.  Thus, while Democrat policies have pushed the nation’s inflation rate to over 7%, and even higher in Washington State, Representative Peterson’s bill would force landlords to obsorb these increased costs for six months.  Knowing this, would a developer want to build more housing units or less?  (Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

In his weekly newsletter, House Republican Leader JT Wilcox stated why his caucus is still focused on repealing the Democrats’ poorly developed Long-Term Care payroll tax and replacing it with a voluntary program.  Representative Wilcox reminded readers that 63% of voters voted against the measure (in an advisory vote) after Democrat legislators passed the bill in 2019.  The Republican leader also wrote, “Another reality is the program is insolvent. It is clear the numbers don’t work. This means premiums will likely have to be increased in the future.” Representative Wilcox outlined the advantages of a government-backed private Long-Term Care program (HB 1913) introduced by Representative Drew Stokesbary (R-Auburn). (The Current and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

The Sound Transit light rail link connecting Ballard, Lower Queen Anne, SoDo, and West Seattle is already 166% over budget and is not expected to be completed for another 15 years (IF it doesn’t fall further behind schedule like nearly all other Sound Transit projects).  When Sound Transit put “ST3” before the voters in 2016, it promised it would construct this rail line for approximately $7.5 billion.  Today, before construction begins, costs have already skyrocketed to $12.6 billion.  Cost will certainly increase even more rapidly if the incredibly expensive 145-feet deep tunnel through downtown Seattle is included in the plans.  Sound Transit officials aren’t even looking at cheaper elevated or surface level options through the city because there appears to be little consideration for the taxpayers who must pay for this construction project.  This tends to happen a lot at Sound Transit, where those who are making the budget decisions on the project are not directly accountable to the voters.  (Seattle Times)

Seattle criminals have become more brazen in their thefts as they continue to take advantage of the city’s well-known soft-on-crime policies.  At the end of last week, thieves broke into a large utility box underneath the Magnolia Bridge to steal cables and copper wiring (both are lucrative commodities on the black market).  This has resulted in many Magnolia residents being without phone or cable service for over two days.  No word if Seattle Councilmember Andrew Lewis, one of the lead apologists for the city’s failed criminal policies, was one of those impacted by this latest criminal action. (MyNorthwest)

As out-of-state developers rush to Eastern Washington to install large wind and solar farms, Representative Mark Klicker (R – Walla Walla) has introduced legislation to halt all decisions on alternative energy sites until December 2023.  Representative Klicker stated his legislation (HB 1871) would allow for a more uniform, all-encompassing process in determining sites, instead of the current process which approves projects individually.  The freshman representative said he is concerned about the fact that nearly all the proposed wind and solar farms are in rural counties which will receive a very small portion of the energy benefits (which will be obtained by mostly Western Washington residents.) (Tri-City Herald and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Our Newsmaker Interview was 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)

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