Rep. J.T. Wilcox (R-Yelm) recently announced his retirement, and will conclude a dedicated 14-year tenure in the State House of Representatives next January. During his memorable service, he was the Republican Floor Leader for six years, followed by five years as the House Republican Leader. Rep. Wilcox’s principled leadership will be greatly missed.

Given Rep. Wilcox’s impact on our state and his upcoming departure from the State Legislature, we are pleased to bring you an interview he did this week with Washington House Republican Radio.

Listen to the full interview here.

Governor Jay Inslee’s cringeworthy response to his last legislative session would, as the saying goes, be funny if it weren’t so sad. That’s because the same green governor who predicted his massively expensive carbon tax would only cost “pennies,” whose administration has been found to have missed every meaningful environmental goal set by the state over the last decade, and who has presided over the doubling of the state budget put his predictive talents to use with the Associated Press, suggesting “I’m confident that 50 years from now, people will look back and say this was our finest hour because we led the nation in tackling this problem.”

Of course, Gov. Inslee won’t be around to be told in 50 years just how much of a failure his time in office was for the state. But his gaslighting will still exist, such as his attempts to scare taxpayers away from repealing his precious carbon tax and state income tax by fibbing that the “initiatives jointly would gut, would kneecap, would blow a hole in all of these benefits that Washingtonians are now enjoying.” Read on for more scary stories here… AP.

There was little drama for the folks at public radio to cover in the legislature’s closing hours, but that didn’t keep them from finding an angle for summing up. That’s why KUOW was reporting that “(S)pirits were high in Olympia Thursday as lawmakers adjourned ‘sine die.’ Many legislators donned sequin or sparkly accessories, joking that they were about to adjourn ‘shiny die.’”

You can read on to see that “legislators made progress throughout the session on several priorities for Democrats and Republicans alike, including measures to address the opioid crisis, education needs, and behavioral health.” … KUOW.

You can tell it’s time to get out of Olympia when one Democrat leader is willing to publicly demonstrate being so far out-of-touch with reality by observing (and telling the Seattle Times) that “We (Democrats) didn’t get everything done, which is good for us because we wouldn’t need a Legislature if we got everything done, right?” Yeah, because we’re all counting on the legislature to clear its plate for us.

You can read on to be scared to find out what is really the agenda for the Democrat majority in Olympia, with Representative Joe Nguyen claiming they have moved beyond the phase where “‘(W)e’ve got to do this tax thing, or else we’re not going to have any money for these programs.’ Now it’s like, ‘OK, how do we thoughtfully balance and rearrange everything’?.” Read on to see if letting the likes of Rep. Nguyen and Gov. Inslee “rearrange everything” scares you into action this year… Seattle Times.

Media sites are filled with legislative wrap-ups, but none does quite the job of getting deep into the record-breaking operating budget the Democrats just passed as the House Republican Caucus, and the GOP’s lead on the Appropriations Committee, Rep. Chris Corry. So read on to see why he worries “about the ongoing spending and how long we will be able to continue with it” here … House Republicans.

Nothing makes for better relationships than introducing yourself with a lawsuit. That’s essentially the take from the Capital Press with another story that highlights why folks in Eastern Washington might mistrust their West side brethren, as a “Seattle company applied to a Washington state council to build a 60-megawatt solar installation in Benton County, seeking to sidestep the county’s opposition to energy projects on farmland.”

It seems the greenies from Seattle are just trying to do good after all, so why should they have to follow local rules? Read on to learn why “OneEnergy is asking the Energy Facility Site Evaluation Council to preempt Benton County’s moratorium on solar projects on land zoned for agriculture.” … Capital Press.

Sometimes, Seattle bureaucrats make it easy for Shift to remind people why a one-party government is such a disaster.There is simply no incentive to do well. Just consider the Seattle Times coverage that the “launch of Seattle Municipal Court’s new $54 million case management system has gotten off to a rough start this week, failing to migrate case documents and going offline repeatedly.”

What makes this news so sad is that “(R)ollout of the new system has been in the works since 2016.” That’s right, three mayors ago the bureaucrats started in on this plan, though “the city underestimated its complexity and rescoped the project in 2021.”

Read on to see that, as usual, somebody is making money off all these errors, as the project “cost also jumped $17 million, from $37 million to $54 million.” … Seattle Times.

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