The effort to place an initiative on the ballot to eliminate the illegal state income tax on capital gains has raised a lot of money, but it faces tough challenges due to the increased cost of collecting petition signatures.  The group behind I-1929, “Repeal the Capital Gains Income Tax,” is concerned the nine all-liberal members of the Washington State Supreme Court have already struck a deal with Democrat lawmakers to find some flimsy excuse to overturn the Douglas County Superior Court decision which called the tax unconstitutional since it is clearly an income tax.  Many believe the court will agree with state Democrats and call it an “excise tax,” even though the IRS and the 49 other states all call it an “income tax”.  Thus the group is hoping to pass an initiative which will ban the tax.

The group has raised close to a half million dollars from a few leading business executives.  Yet the concern is that they will need far more money due to signature gatherers now charging $10 to $13 a signature.  This is a significant increase from previous costs of around $5 a signature. The backers will need to collect approximately 325,000 signatures before the first week of July to qualify for the November ballot. The backers are attempting to find creative and less expensive solutions to gathering enough signatures before July.  (MyNorthwest, The Olympian, and Washington Policy Center)

The Seattle Times marked the 100^th day of Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s Administration with a 2,200 word article on his “accomplishments,” and frankly there isn’t much there.  The article states, “Since he took office, Harrell has taken a slower approach (than previous Mayor Jenny Durkan) to public policy, without a public plan for the first 100 days. He has not shared a set of specific goals for his first year in office either.  Instead, he says, his early days have been focused on studying the city and the office he inherited.”

It is frustrating to many that, despite serving on the Seattle City Council for 12 years, four as council president, running for mayor for a year, and hiring many long-time city employees to top positions in his administration, Mayor Harrell still feels the need to “study the city” before announcing a plan for the city to move forward.

Violent crime continues to rise, and officers continue to flee the police department.  While the city has removed a couple of high profile homeless encampments, the “residents” have simply moved into neighborhoods. The Seattle Fire Department has already responded to more than 450 illegal fires set in homeless encampments during the mayor’s first 100 days. The city’s downtown retail core continues to lose small employers and still remains a ghost town as several major employers have chosen to not reopen their downtown office spaces. The city’s liberal housing policies have caused the loss of 10,000 rental housing units. Last week a poll revealed that 67% of current residents are considering moving out of the city. How hard is it to study all this, since the problems all existed at some level when now-Mayor Harrell was the City Council President?

One would hope that a city would have a leader who not only had a plan developed to tackle these problems, but was actually working to solve them.  Seattle has had five successive failed liberal mayors (Paul Schell, Greg Nicklls, Mike McGinn, Ed Murray, and Jenny Durkan) who have either been thrown out of office by the voters, resigned, or quit knowing they could not win re-election.  Frustration is growing among city residents, and Mayor Harrell will need to begin taking positive steps soon, or he will make it six straight failed administrations. (Seattle Times, CenterSquare, Jason Rantz Facebook, KING5 News, The Daily Mail, MyNorthwest, CenterSquare)

In a related story, a Seattle Times editorial today stated that the policies of the region’s liberal establishment are the cause of the major problems facing the City of Seattle, and a recent poll indicates a strong frustration with the city’s current leadership failure to fix these challenges.  As the Daily Briefing reported last week, a new poll of 700 Seattle voters by the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce revealed that 2/3rds of Seattle’s residents are considering moving out of the city, 73% believe their neighborhood is less safe today than it was two years ago, and nearly three quarters of Seattle residents don’t feel safe going downtown in the evening.

The editorial stated that only new elected officials (City Attorney Ann Davison and City Councilmember Sara Nelson) are working toward solutions, while the “long-tenured incumbents directly responsible for the rot of voter distrust” continue to promote their failed radical agendas.  The Times mentions that seven city councilmembers are up for re-election next year and “all should be held accountable” by the voters. The editorial summed up the public opinions and the lack of results from city leaders by stating, “When so many people are this frustrated, leaders must get in step or get out of the way.” (Seattle Times, April 8^th Daily Briefing, and Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce)

Police say the Democrats’ reckless “police reform” package is responsible for the 150% increase in car thefts in Pierce County when comparing this year to 2021.  Data released by the Puget Sound Auto Task Force reveals that an average of 30 cars a day are stolen in the county.  A Pierce County Sherriff Office spokesperson stated that the primary reason for the jump is that criminals know that police cannot chase vehicle-theft suspects.  This is due to the Democrats in the Washington State Legislature caving into the demands of violent liberal activists to pass “reforms” bills during the 2021 session, which made Washington a more comfortable place to be a criminal.

The Democrats’ “reforms” included forbidding police from pursuing suspects in nearly all circumstances.  The Democrats promised to fix the “pursuit” problems during the 2022 legislative session, but liberal special interest groups convinced them to allow the bill (HB 5919) to die before the session ended.  Thus criminals will continue to take advantage of the Democrats’ policies and thousands more cars will be stolen until a new legislature is convened next January. (Q13 FOX News, CenterSquare, and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

The President of the Yakima County Farm Bureau believes he will soon be joined by many more people concerned about the impact of solar panel farms in Eastern Washington.  Mark Herke calls the collection of panels “solar-industrial complexes” due to their size and their threat in the reduction of private property.  Throughout Eastern Washington, large solar companies are seeking to cash in on Governor Jay Inslee’s demand to eliminate fossil fuels from the state’s electrical grid by 2045. While windmills will allow livestock and wildlife to graze around them, solar panel farms are fenced off.  If the solar farms are allowed on state property then the state must purchase private lands to offset the loss.  This will mean a reduction of private property in Eastern Washington.

Governor Jay Inslee and Democrat legislators this year gave more power (at the expense of Eastern Washington communities) to the state’s Energy Facilities Site Evaluation Council (EFSEC) to determine where these solar farms are located and how they are to operate.  Herke believes the EFSEC, which is made up solely of Inslee appointees, will overlook local concerns as the state rushes to build solar farms across Eastern Washington.  Herke said, “I very much predict there will be more pushback.” (Capitol Press)

The state’s wolf population continues to grow despite uniformed complaints from environmental groups that more government action is required.  The Washington State Department of Fish and Wildlife (WDFW) said that the state’s wolf population grew by 16% during 2021.  This was the 13^th straight year there has been an increase in the number of wolves and packs in Washington State.  The WDFW said there are now 206 wolves roaming Eastern Washington in 33 packs (up from 29 packs in 2020). (KOMO News)

Our Newsmaker Interview was with Susanna Keilman, Republican candidate for the 28^th Legislative District’s House of Representatives position currently held by Democrat Representative Dan Bronoske. This former U.S. Air Force medic has spent the past 22 years in a successful health care career, including in clinical research business development.  Her South King County 28^th LD includes Joint Base Lewis McChord, so the needs of military members, their families, and veterans are a top priority – making military voting rights, which Keilman wants to make a stronger priority for our government, a defining issue.

During our interview, Keilman asserted that the state’s current public safety laws are “frustrating and disrespectful to law enforcement and law-abiding citizens.”  She wants to close the loopholes which allow criminals to be immediately released after they have been arrested.  Keilman claimed it was a “missed opportunity” by Democrat legislators to not provide any tax relief when the state had a $15 billion revenue surplus.  Keilman added she wants “a performance and salary audit of every state employee, including the Governor’s office,” and start “cutting the bloat that they’ve created over the last decade.” (Click to read full Newsmaker interview)

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