The sales pitch for Democrats’ proposed 9.9% income tax is slick and rehearsed: it will fix Washington’s “regressive” tax code and only apply to millionaires.

As the Washington Policy Center points out, history — and their own internal emails — say otherwise.

Back in 2018, Sen. Jamie Pedersen emailed former Democratic lawmaker Dick Nelson outlining what now reads like a blueprint. First, pass a capital gains tax. Sell it as affecting only a small group — roughly 12,000 taxpayers — and promise broad tax relief in exchange.

The tax passed.

Since 2022, the state has collected about $1.8 billion in capital gains revenue. Property taxes didn’t go down. Sales taxes didn’t drop. The money didn’t flow back to working families. It flowed straight into new spending.

So much for the “trade.”

But the email revealed something more important. Pedersen admitted the “more important benefit” of the capital gains tax was legal. The goal was to provoke a court challenge and give the Washington Supreme Court an opportunity to overturn long-standing precedent that treats income as property under the state constitution.

Why? Because if income could be reclassified, lawmakers could enact a progressive income tax with a simple majority vote.

Fast forward to today’s 9.9% “millionaires tax.” We’re told — again — that this is limited, targeted, and compassionate.

But the roadmap practically writes itself:

1. Pass the capital gains tax to crack the constitutional door. (Done.)
2. Pass a high-earner income tax to normalize the infrastructure. (In progress.)
3. Lower the threshold later, once the system is operational and politically normalized.

That’s not conspiracy. That’s incrementalism.

When have Washington lawmakers ever imposed a new tax and then voluntarily shrunk it? When has a “temporary” or “targeted” tax stayed neatly in its original box?

Democrats can keep repeating “only millionaires” at press conferences. But their own words tell the real story: the so-called millionaire’s tax isn’t the destination.

It’s the next step. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

Washington Democrats have pulled this trick before.

In 2016, Initiative 1501 was sold to voters as a heartfelt effort to protect seniors from identity theft. The marketing was airtight. The emotional appeal? Bulletproof. The actual policy? A quiet rewrite of Washington’s Public Records Act.

As Matthew Hayward, Director of Strategic Outreach at the Freedom Foundation, explains in a new piece, editorial boards from The Wall Street Journal, The Seattle Times, and National Review warned at the time, the measure functioned less as consumer protection and more as a carefully packaged carve-out benefiting union interests. Even the Seattle Times called it a “Trojan horse.”

Here’s what got buried in the fine print: the new exemption didn’t just apply to caregivers for vulnerable adults. It also covered publicly funded in-home childcare providers.

That mattered.

Before the exemption, independent groups could use public records to contact licensed childcare providers — including informing them of their constitutional right to opt out of union membership. Public records also made it possible to flag red flags: abandoned addresses, questionable operations, compliance concerns.

Then scrutiny intensified. And instead of reform, lawmakers narrowed transparency.

As Hayward explains, once the state created an exclusive bargaining unit for providers, it also restricted access to the contact information that had previously allowed independent outreach and alternative organizing. In other words, government helped create the structure — then limited the information needed to challenge it.

Meanwhile, teachers and firefighters funded by taxpayers remain subject to public disclosure. Apparently, transparency is selective.

Hayward argues this isn’t about attacking unions. It’s about accountability. Public money demands public oversight. When exemptions expand right as outside review gets uncomfortable, voters should ask why.

Minnesota’s massive childcare fraud scandal shows what can happen when oversight weakens and independent scrutiny is sidelined.

Washington was warned once before.

The real question: will Democrats reopen the books — or keep closing them until there’s a scandal big enough to force their hand? Read more at Center Square.

Washington Democrats proudly rolled out a $100 million police hiring program, championed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, to fix the embarrassing reality that our state ranks dead last in police staffing per capita.

There’s just one small problem.

No one’s gotten the money.

Cities and counties say the rollout has been slow, confusing, and buried under technical glitches and red tape. Only six departments have applied so far. That’s not exactly a stampede.

Local officials aren’t mincing words. The Association of Washington Cities says yes, it’s concerning that not a single jurisdiction has seen a dime. The Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs calls the process a “tremendous amount of bureaucracy.” Even the Criminal Justice Training Commission admits getting through verification is a “very heavy lift.”

And then there’s the catch.

Lawmakers required cities and counties to adopt a new 0.1% sales tax — or already have one — to qualify. Translation: if you want state “help,” you’d better raise local taxes first. For many smaller jurisdictions, that tax won’t raise enough to sustain new officers once the temporary state money dries up in 2028. So departments are understandably hesitant to hire long-term staff with short-term funding.

Seattle, of course, approved the tax and expects to rake in $39 million this year. But statewide? Only seven of 39 counties have even taken the first step toward passing it.

Even supporters acknowledge the money won’t solve the staffing crisis. One county leader called it somewhere between “a drop in a bucket and a ripple.”

Meanwhile, cities like Lynden say they spent months just trying to get basic guidance from the state. At one point, officials feared they could lose $100,000 per month for failing to comply with requirements that hadn’t even been clearly defined yet.

Gov. Ferguson isn’t “totally worried.”

Maybe he should be.

Washington has fewer officers per capita than any other state. Democrats promised a bold fix. What they delivered — so far — is a complicated grant portal, a tax mandate, and a lot of frustration.

The press conference was easy.

Actually getting cops on the street? That’s proving to be the hard part. Read more at the Washington State Standard.

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