New reporting from The Center Square is raising questions about the cozy relationship between Washington Democrats, the Attorney General’s Office, and the campaign defending the state’s new 9.9% “Millionaire’s Tax.”

Pacifica Law Group, the former firm of Attorney General Nick Brown, represents the campaign opposing Initiative 645, which would repeal the new income tax. Yet Pacifica attorneys also submitted letters to the AGO offering recommendations on the ballot titles and summaries for initiatives seeking to repeal the tax.

Among their suggestions: emphasize the supposed fiscal consequences of repealing the tax.

Pacifica insists this is standard practice. But former Attorney General Rob McKenna called the involvement “obviously highly irregular,” particularly because Pacifica could potentially end up representing the other side in litigation over the initiative.

The situation gets even more interesting. SEIU 775 Treasurer Adam Glickman, whose union is one of the major funders of the No on 645 campaign, forwarded Pacifica’s letter to AGO Chief of Staff David Postman, thanking the office for the “opportunity to provide input.” Postman then forwarded it to Solicitor General Noah Purcell.

The obvious question is: Did the proponents of I-645 get the same opportunity?

Citizens Action Defense Fund Executive Director Jackson Maynard argues the AGO risks appearing to favor one side in what is supposed to be a neutral process. The AGO says it accepts input from anyone and makes the final decision on ballot language.

There’s also a deeper connection. Pacifica attorney Paul Lawrence previously represented the Edmond School District in litigation defending Washington’s capital gains tax. Pacifica’s work in that case was later cited by AGO attorneys while preparing a legal memo on the constitutionality of the new high-earner income tax.

So the same political universe pushing Washington’s latest tax increase has lawyers helping shape how voters will see the effort to repeal it.

Nothing to see here, folks—just Olympia’s favorite combination: taxes, unions, Democratic lawyers and a supposedly neutral government process. Read more at Center Square.

Washington Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal used his personal Facebook page to launch an unhinged political rant, calling the MAGA wing of the Republican Party “fascist,” accusing it of wanting to install a theocracy, and portraying the Democratic Socialists of America as little more than ordinary Democrats.

The problem isn’t that Reykdal has political opinions. It’s that his own positions are increasingly the extreme ones—and he seems far more interested in attacking Republicans than improving Washington’s schools.

Reykdal runs a supposedly nonpartisan office responsible for more than a million students, yet he chose to spend his time branding a huge portion of the families he serves as threats to democracy.

Meanwhile, Washington recently fell to 31st in the nation for education, even as per-pupil spending reached roughly $20,300.

Maybe instead of lecturing Washington families about MAGA and defending socialists, Reykdal could focus on the job voters actually gave him: educating kids.Read more at Seattle Red.

Washington has spent $46.6 million from a $100 million public safety grant program and funded just 74 officers—an eye-popping average of about $630,000 per cop.

The Washington State Criminal Justice Training Commission’s first report to the Legislature also raises some serious questions about where the money is actually going.

Three agencies—Auburn, Renton and Colfax—received more than $4.2 million combined and hired zero officers. Auburn alone received nearly $3.9 million, the fourth-largest award in the program, despite adding no cops to the streets.

The commission says the money can also fund things like co-responder programs, equipment, training, retention and officer wellness. Fair enough—but the public isn’t being told exactly how much went to those categories.

Then there’s King County, which received the largest award: $15 million. That money funded just three officers, or about $5 million per deputy. Most of the award is instead supporting co-responder programs and behavioral health services.

For comparison, Jefferson County funded nine officers for about $762,000, while Kent and Federal Way each funded ten officers for substantially less than King County spent.

As Seattle Red’s Jason Rantz points out, the report itself isn’t exactly a model of government accounting. Its narrative says agencies requested funding for 117 officers, while its table says 125. It also reports more than $86.8 million in applications, while the figures in the table add up to about $82.1 million.

The commission says applications changed during the review process and that updated figures will appear later.

All of this comes after Washington spent years making it harder for police to do their jobs while the state developed one of the nation’s worst officer-per-capita ratios.

The Legislature created a $100 million fund ostensibly to address the public-safety staffing crisis. But with millions going to agencies that hired no officers and the largest award producing only three deputies, taxpayers have every right to ask a very simple question:

Where did all the police money go?

Because at roughly $630,000 per officer, Washington may have discovered the most expensive cop shortage in America. Read more at Seattle Red.

The fight over the ballot language for Initiative 645, which would repeal Washington’s new 9.9% high-earner income tax, is headed to the state Supreme Court.

Open-government activist Arthur West appealed a Thurston County Superior Court ruling upholding the Attorney General’s Public Investment Impact Disclosure (PIID). The statement warns voters that repealing the tax would reduce funding for K-12 and higher education and human services.

West argues that is misleading because the tax won’t generate any revenue until 2029. As he put it, “you can’t cut something that doesn’t exist.”

Judge Chris Lanese previously rejected West’s challenge after a heated hearing. His ruling also derailed a separate challenge from Let’s Go Washington, which had been scheduled to argue that the PIID was misleading and lacked neutrality.

LGW said it was frustrated that it never got its own day in court.

Now the Supreme Court will decide whether voters are being given a neutral financial disclosure—or a government-approved warning about what might happen if they dare repeal the Democrats’ favorite new tax. Read more at Center Square.

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