Democrat legislators just found out they have another voter initiative to ignore, after refusing yesterday to schedule a hearing on I-2113, the initiative to restore reasonable police pursuit rules. That’s because, as the Seattle Times reports, “organizers of an effort to repeal the 2021 Climate Commitment Act, Washington’s landmark climate change policy, collected enough signatures to move forward, the Secretary of State’s Office announced Tuesday, checking off another box for the Republican-backed measure.”

Initiative 2117, the carbon tax repeal measure, is sure to attract plenty of campaign cash from Governor Jay Inslee’s allies, the same ones currently cashing government checks for their “green” projects funded by the carbon tax. You can read on to see how these extreme greens believe Washington’s carbon tax will “encourage other states to follow suit,” although given the gas price spikes felt here it’s more likely states will run screaming in the other direction… Seattle Times.

It is probably not actually news that legislative Democrats are pushing for new taxes in Washington state. But, the legislature is in session, so we have to highlight the mistakes being made, and that includes Center Square writing that “State Senate Republican leader John Braun is decrying a bill proposed by majority Democrats that, if enacted, could triple Washington’s 1% limit on annual property tax increases.”

This latest Democrat proposal to roll back a voter-approved policy made it easy for Sen. Braun to skewer the Left, asking “Can’t Washingtonians get a single year where Democrats aren’t digging deeper into their pockets?” You can read on to see how the liberal viewpoint is that more taxes are not enough, as “the arbitrary 1% limitation on the growth of property tax collections has severely inhibited the ability of the state, counties, cities, and other special districts” to take as much money as they want… Center Square.

Not having Donald Trump around to file lawsuits against has been limiting Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s ability to score cheap political points. That’s why the wannabe governor was more than happy to do the bidding of his multi-million-dollar donors in the labor community, and file a complaint against the proposed Albertsons-Kroger merger, which Crosscut highlights is very unpopular with the unions.

This partisan fight is not going away soon, with one union leader admitting this is about power, as “(W)e need to increase staffing, improve our schedules and increase our leverage as unionized grocery store workers, not go the other way.” Read on to see how much this fight matters here, since “Kroger and Albertsons have not disclosed which stores they plan to sell in the $1.9-billion deal, but significant market overlap in Washington means more stores are being offered up in this state than any other.”… Crosscut.

The concept of public service for its own good is evidently lost on some “leaders”, at least some of those in the majority party in the legislature. That’s where “State Sen. Joe Nguyễn, D-White Center, introduced Senate Bill 6223 … to allow school boards to increase pay for board members,” according to the Auburn Reporter.

The “reasoning” behind Sen. Nguyen’s bill is that the state is not paying people enough money to be public servants, an idea that spurred Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal to suggest this bill. Read on to see how, in Sen. Nguyen’s world, school board members “are often not reflective of the communities they serve. We have a chance to remove a significant financial barrier to this critical role,” by spending more money on Democrat elected officials… Auburn Reporter.

The entire team at Shift was rooting for the U.S. Supreme Court to accept a longshot appeal to the unconstitutional state income tax allowed by Washington state’s Supreme Court. Unfortunately, as the Seattle Times reported earlier, the justices said “it would not review Quinn v. Washington, the lawsuit challenging Washington’s capital gains tax.”

This decision may not be the final one, as the “U.S. Supreme Court declining to hear the case is not the last hurdle the new tax could face — it could be on the ballot in the fall.” That likelihood will become official when the Secretary of State finishes counting the signatures to certify the initiative to repeal the state income tax… Seattle Times.

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