It was not an unexpected outcome, especially after the speed of the announcement indicated that the nine liberal justices on the Washington State Supreme Court already had their minds made up before hearing the latest state income tax case. And, unfortunately, only two of them had their minds on the law, while the other seven members of the court carried the day in legalizing a state income tax for the first time in Washington State history, by allowing State Attorney General Bob Ferguson to define the Democrat tax an “excise” one and not an unconstitutional “property” one.

Supreme Court Justice Gordon McCloud was kind enough to provide a straightforward snapshot of the case in his dissent: “‘Capital Gains’ are income. In Washington, income is property. A Washington ‘capital gain tax’ is therefore a property tax.”

Seems clear enough, but for the Democrats in the legislature and their elite Puget Sound-area donors, this was just the latest payoff in a quarter-century strategy of taking over the state’s judicial system, to ensure that legislative actions are not burdened with meeting the plain words of our state constitution. Does anyone want to take a guess at when the Democrats will move to lower the threshold for inflicting the tax, or raise the tax rate? (WA Observer, Seattle Times)

You could have guessed that whenever piles of money and liberal special interests are in the same place that someone is going to complain about their share of the pile. That’s the takeaway from the Seattle Times report on the early winners and losers from the state’s cap-and-tax scheme as “state senators are proposing to invest millions from the program in electrifying ports, schools and homes, conserving old forests, and helping relocate Indigenous communities who are vulnerable to climate change.”

What’s noticeably missing from that list is much that will actually reduce emissions, which is allegedly the reason for the cap-and-tax law. But plenty of liberal campaign donors will be taken care of with your money. As far-Left State Senator Joe Nguyen told the Times, “We’re not just trying to build a better future, we’re also trying to rectify the mistakes of the past.” With your money, of course. And with the good Senator and his friends deciding what the mistakes were, and how much you should pay for them.

Dissent in the ranks is already coming from “Front and Centered, a statewide environmental justice group led by communities of color,” with a spokesman from the group complaining that “Communities overburdened by pollution have been promised investments as a result of the Climate Commitment Act, but the Senate’s initial proposal has our frontline communities asking: where did those commitments go?” Where indeed, but over to the House to see what budget number comes from there next week. (Seattle Times)

Frustrated by his inability to get his $4 billion dollar homelessness scheme into his own party’s first budget, the governor went on the attack according to the Herald’s Jerry Cornfield: “Inslee sharply criticized the Senate’s approach, saying it would take the state backwards on housing. ‘In the middle of a housing crisis, less is unacceptable.’” Of course, the fact that the Senate was proposing spending a record amount on housing projects did not matter to Inslee, because it was not his plan! That bothered Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig, who told Cornfield “he was ‘really disappointed’ with the content and the tone of the governor’s comments, some of which were ‘outright false.’” A Jay Inslee comment false – color us amused that Democrat Sen. Billig is just finding that out. (Herald)

Urban-focused reporter Erica Barnett did the hard work of sitting through a recent Sound Transit board meeting, and reported that not much has changed. Last-minute plans, with no budgets attached, are presented. Democrats are arguing over which neighborhood will get least harmed by their fancy plans. She captured the scene with this tortured sentence: “The last-minute proposal (from Sound Transit’s board member Claudia Balducci) is a direct response to, and amendment of, another last-minute proposal backed by King County Executive Dow Constantine and Mayor Bruce Harrell.” We are in year 7 since the vote to approve ST3, and the routing mess and missed deadlines (not to mention exploding budgets) continue. (PubliCola)

The city of Seattle is finding out it’s a lot easier to complain about the lack of affordable housing than it is to not make it worse. Unfortunately, KUOW reports that the city is losing more apartments than are being built, because of overregulation. “Between July 2018 and August 2022, developers in Seattle built nearly 11,000 new apartments in large apartment buildings. During that same time period, small landlords owning less than 20 units — and many owning just one rental home — were pulling their units off the rental market. More than 11,000 rentable homes owned by small landlords left the market during that period, effectively erasing the gains from large buildings.”

City Councilwoman Sara Nelson is trying to engage with these landlords, but as one said, “Every small landlord that we know in Seattle has an exit strategy to divest and leave the city.” (KUOW)

If Jay Inslee and his bureaucrats were serious about removing homeless encampments from state property, why does a judge have to be involved?  That is what city of Spokane officials are asking this week, after it took Superior Court Judge Marla Polin to order the state to work with the city to clean up the notorious (and cruelly named) Camp Hope. KXLY reports the judge writing,  “One of the things that the city argued, and I would like to see is for the parties to be able to come together, and come up with a plan. I think that’s one of the things that maybe the only thing that the parties can agree on is there has to be a right way to handle this and close Camp Hope.” Maybe the state will finally try to be part of the solution, now that Lisa Brown has left Jay Inslee’s cabinet to run for Spokane Mayor. (KXLY)

Rev up the motorcycle, WA State Supreme Court is jumping the shark

Media defines “victory” – Democrats have really been fighting for a state “excise” tax all these years, not state “income” tax

Silver linings: State Supreme Court doesn’t shred entire state constitution

To get early insight into what might make Shift’s next Daily Briefing worth reading, tune in to 570 KVI on your AM dial weekday mornings at 8:05, to hear John Carlson talk Washington State legislative politics with Shift co-founder Randy Pepple. And you can always stay for the rest of the Commute with Carlson by tuning in here.

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