Washington Democrats have turned over control of our state’s vehicle emissions laws to California politicians, yet they refuse to do the same when it comes to tax relief for Washington’s lower- and middle-income workers. In 2020, Washington’s Democrat legislators passed legislation which requires our state to blindly adopt any vehicle emissions standards enacted by California.  This is why, without a vote from any Washington legislators, our state law now prohibits the sale of new gas-powered cars after 2035 – much to the delight of Governor Jay Inslee.

While this legislation benefits Washington’s liberal politicians (since they don’t have to go on the record supporting whatever bad and expensive emissions policies come out of California), the Democrat lawmakers aren’t willing to do the same when it benefits Washington State taxpayers.  California politicians recently passed legislation which will use their state’s surplus tax revenue to provide lower- and middle-income households with a tax cut, up to $1,050.  As Democrat California Governor Gavin Newsom asserts, this will help taxpayers “with the rising costs from the grocery store to the gas pump.”

Yet instead of following California in helping state residents who are suffering from the same liberal inflationary policies and high gas prices, Washington Governor Jay Inslee decided to use what remains  of our state’s revenue surplus to give his campaign contributors in the state employee unions two more pay raises (after they have already received three pay raises during the past 30 months).  Thus while multiple states, including California, are using surplus revenue to help their residents pay bills, our state’s Democrat lawmakers have chosen to ignore the concerns of lower- and middle-income workers. Evidently Washington Democrats are willing to blindly follow their California colleagues only when it benefits them, but not when it benefits our state’s taxpayers. (The Hill Twitter, U.S. News & World Report, KCRA News, and Shift)

The failure of the Inslee Administration to provide a bed at Western State Hospital for a suspect in a brutal assault resulted in the man instead being set free – and he is now charged with murdering two people in Idaho.  John Cody Hart was arrested in August 2021 in Vancouver, Washington for a brutal assault which has left one man blind.  The Clark County Superior Court ordered he be sent to Western State Hospital for competency restoration. Yet after months of waiting for space, the court agreed to a defense motion to release him on bail since the delay violated his due process.  The man was released and ordered not to leave the county.  Last Saturday, the husband-and-wife owners of a Central Idaho hotel were murdered, and Hart was charged with the crime.

The Washington State Department of Social and Health Services which, oversees the Western State Hospital, said in an email that it has “implemented numerous efforts in recent years to improve and shorten wait times for those in need of competency services, but rising referral numbers, staffing shortages and the pandemic have contributed to an increase in these challenges.”  One question, beyond the obvious one about basic accountability,  is did Governor Inslee’s vaccine mandate have anything to do with the staff shortage?  This situation should not have snuck up on the governor, as the administration of the Western State Hospital has been a serious problem during his administration.  Most notably the hospital lost federal certification and $53 million in federal funds due to poor administration in 2018. (Vancouver Columbian and Seattle Times)

In one of the strangest endorsements in recent memories, the Seattle Times endorsed career Democrat politician Senator Marco Liias (Edmonds) for reelection despite acknowledging his poor performance in office.  The editorial endorsement admits that the senator made many mistakes when he led the Democrats’ efforts to jam through their expensive $17 billion transportation package (which includes several rate hikes which impact lower-income workers the hardest) and that he strongly supported his party’s anti-police package which has resulted in skyrocketing crime rates and thousands of preventable crime victims.

The Times mentions that Senator Liias was forced to apologize on the floor of the Senate for insulting a fellow Democrat, Oregon Governor Kate Brown. Yet the newspaper failed to mention the reason why Governor Brown was initially upset. It was because of Senator Liias’ initial refusal to remove his poorly developed export tax on gas refined in Washington, which caused political leaders in Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon to propose retaliatory taxes on products their states send to Washington. Liias was then forced to remove his tax proposal from the transportation package.

The paper acknowledged that Senator Liias broke the long-standing tradition of the legislature passing bi-partisan transportation packages when he purposefully ignored all Republican proposals and didn’t even allow Republicans to view the document before it was released to the media. The Times states, “This can either be a troubling sign of things to come or a one-time lapse.” What evidence does the Times have that Senator Liias’ actions are not the new normal from extremely partisan Democrat legislators?

The Times does admit that GOP challenger Janelle Cass has strong credentials and “is a smart and worthy challenger.” Yet the editors chose to support Senator Liias based on his promises to do better in the future and because he has been in the legislature for 14 years.   Evidently, for the Times editorial board, a legislative career full of mistakes and divisiveness can simply be erased by promising to do better in the future.  (Seattle Times, Washington Senate GOP Caucus Twitter, KOMO News, Representative Andrew Barkis statement, Clark County Today, and Janelle Cass for Senate)

The Seattle Police Department announced it will deploy “emphasis patrols” in the University District in response to the multiple violent crime incidents in the neighborhood which have created many new victims – stemming from the city’s devastating public safety policies. These are the same type of emphasis patrols which have been temporarily used in the International District and Downtown’s 3^rd Avenue following an outbreak of crime.  Yet since the Seattle Police Department is dangerously short-staffed, these patrols cost Seattle taxpayers millions in overtime pay and they only stay in place a short time.  When the patrols leave, the crime returns. (MyNorthwest and KOMO News)

The Seattle Fire Department, which is short-staffed due to vaccine mandates, is now facing the possibility of a serial arsonist. Investigators say that seven fires reported early last Sunday in the Pioneer Square and International District neighborhoods were intentionally set.  All were set in garbage dumpsters and recycling bins outside of businesses.  The Seattle Fire Department is down a few dozen firefighters due to the city’s vaccine mandate.  (Seattle Fire Line and Q13 Fox News)

The Yakima County Farm Bureau thanked the Yakima County Commission for continuing its moratorium on medium- and large-scale solar farms until the county has time to develop rules for the development of these facilities.  The president of the local Farm Bureau blamed Governor Inslee for the mad rush of solar farms being built and the amount of agriculture lands which have been lost. Environmentalists are also concerned about the rush to develop large solar and wind farms, for they often hamper the migration of endangered or threatened species.  The commissioners had originally placed a six-month moratorium last July, and this week voted to keep it in place. (Yakima Herald)

Spokane County Commissioner Josh Kerns explained why the commission voted unanimously to file a lawsuit against the state over the large homeless encampment allowed to grow on Washington State Department of Transportation property.  The Republican commissioner said, “Folks at the state have tried to say that local government is more concerned about optics and action. This is action. This is leadership that we’re taking. There are a number of folks, not only at the camp, but the surrounding areas that have essentially been abandoned by the leadership of the state. We’re coming in, we’re gonna fix a problem that quite frankly, the state has let get completely out of hand.” (KREM News)

Unfortunately in Washington State we are witnessing the dangerous end result of one-party rule, as Democrat politicians routinely ignore basic principles of American democracy because they are inconvenient in their drive to impose their liberal agenda.  We have seen this repeatedly with the Inslee Administration, as the governor has undemocratically abused “emergency” powers for 32 months (unprecedented in our state, even during war time) because he believes it is more important to provide benefits to his campaign supporters than it is to adhere to the democratic belief that all voices should be heard in determining laws.  We now see almost daily examples of Democrat politicians ignoring basic governing principles (on Tuesday we reported on two such occurrences).  This abuse will continue until Washington voters say they have had enough of one-party rule. (Click to read full Shift article)

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