If GOP Rep. Travis Couture is right, Washington Democrats aren’t planning to pump the brakes—they’re planning to hit the gas.
Democrats’ 2027 Agenda? Taxes, Criminal Justice and a Permanent Majority
State Rep. Travis Couture, R-Allyn, the House GOP budget leader, says he has identified 11 policies Democrats and their allies are preparing to pursue when lawmakers return in January—and the list is a greatest hits collection of tax hikes and softer-on-crime policies.
On taxes, Couture points to a statewide version of Seattle’s JumpStart payroll tax, a tax on unrealized capital gains, major property-tax increases, a new margins tax and potentially lowering the $1 million threshold on Washington’s new income tax, opening the door to taxing more middle-class households.
The public-safety proposals Couture highlights include eliminating or reducing juvenile detention for gang offenders, reducing penalties for sex offenders, closing prisons and releasing inmates early, cutting law-enforcement funding, eliminating bail and changing public-defense requirements. He also warns of proposals involving state-supported drug distribution.
Perhaps most ominously, Couture claims Democrats are considering redistricting changes that would help cement a long-term Democratic majority in Olympia.
Couture says these aren’t hypothetical ideas, arguing that each has either already been introduced as legislation or formally recommended by groups aligned with Democrats.
In other words: Couture’s warning to Washington voters is that what Democrats couldn’t get through Olympia last session could be coming back—with a vengeance—in 2027. Read more at Seattle Red.
Democrats’ Tax-Flight Denial Is Getting Harder to Sell
The Budget & Policy Center is insisting “millionaire tax flight” is a myth. The data says otherwise.
Washington Policy Center points to IRS migration data showing Washington can gain taxpayers overall while losing adjusted gross income—meaning the people leaving tend to have more money than those moving in. SmartAsset also found Washington lost a net 222 high-earning millennial households earning more than $200,000 between 2021 and 2022.
And the exits aren’t exactly theoretical. Jeff Bezos moved to Florida, Fisher Investments moved its headquarters to Texas, and former Amazon executive Dave Clark recently moved his $150 million-backed AI startup from Seattle to Dallas.
BPC points to strong capital-gains tax collections as proof wealthy taxpayers aren’t fleeing. But that’s hardly evidence they aren’t changing their behavior. Someone selling a business or assets before leaving can still generate a massive tax payment on the way out. Short-term revenue doesn’t tell you what happens to the tax base, jobs and investment afterward.
The bigger problem for BPC’s argument is that Washington’s new 9.9% income tax hasn’t even taken effect yet. So declaring tax flight a “false narrative” before taxpayers have even had to pay the tax is a remarkably convenient conclusion.
The data doesn’t prove taxes are the only reason people leave. But it certainly doesn’t support the claim that wealthy outmigration is imaginary.
Democrats want voters to believe nobody will leave because of higher taxes. Washington’s migration data suggests they might want to ask the people actually leaving. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.
State Investigates the People Cleaning Up Seattle’s Drug Mess
The Washington State Department of Labor and Industries has opened a “serious” workplace-safety investigation into We Heart Seattle, a nonprofit whose volunteers clean up needles and drug paraphernalia from Seattle streets and parks.
The Jason Rantz exclusive reveals L&I gave the organization just two days to produce extensive workplace-safety records, including bloodborne-pathogen programs, training logs and safety inspections.
The irony? The government agencies distributing harm-reduction kits containing needles, foil and drug-use supplies aren’t the ones under investigation.
We Heart Seattle says its volunteers use gloves, tongs and biohazard containers provided by King County Public Health to collect the needles. The organization has removed roughly 2 million pounds of garbage from Seattle’s public spaces since 2020.
Founder Andrea Suarez says the investigation is an outrageous use of government resources against a group cleaning up a problem created in part by the government’s own policies.
Meanwhile, L&I wouldn’t answer whether it has conducted similar investigations into government-funded cleanup crews, outreach programs or the agencies distributing the drug paraphernalia in the first place.
Apparently in Seattle, the problem isn’t the fentanyl-covered foil littering the streets. It’s the people picking it up. Read more at Seattle Red.
Tacoma DUI Fallout: Crash Victims Say Perez Won’t Call Back
Here’s the latest fallout from Democrat Krista Perez’s alleged DUI crash: one of the people whose truck was damaged says six days later, he still hadn’t heard a word from Perez, her campaign, her insurer or her legal team.
Don McIntyre says his 1989 Chevy pickup was shoved roughly 3½ feet in the chain-reaction crash that damaged five vehicles. He says several of the owners only carry liability insurance, leaving them to deal with the damage themselves while they wait for the responsible driver’s insurance to sort things out.
Perez was charged with DUI on Aug. 13 after police alleged she struck a parked vehicle, triggering the five-car collision. The charge includes a refusal enhancement after police said she failed three attempts to provide a usable breath sample.
And the political irony isn’t subtle. Perez just beat incumbent Democrat Rep. Melanie Morgan in the Aug. 4 primaryand will face Morgan again in November. Her campaign has emphasized helping working families and the “little guy.”
One of those little guys is now trying to figure out how to pay for a wrecked truck—and says nobody representing Perez has bothered to call.
That’s one heck of a way to demonstrate the compassion you’re campaigning on. Read more at Seattle Red.
Washington Wants to Put a Price on Brandi Kruse’s Opinions
The Washington Public Disclosure Commission has opened a formal investigation into Let’s Go Washington over claims that podcaster Brandi Kruse’s support for LGW initiatives amounted to as much as $1.25 million in unreported “in-kind political advertising.”
The problem? Kruse says she never took a dime from LGW or any political organization. Yet regulators are attempting to assign a dollar value to her political speech anyway.
That raises an obvious First Amendment concern. If an independent podcaster’s unpaid advocacy can be treated as a political contribution simply because it reaches a large audience, what’s stopping regulators from doing the same to newspapers, radio hosts, union newsletters or other commentators?
The PDC has not found Kruse or LGW guilty of anything, but the investigation could establish a troubling precedent: the government deciding that your political speech has monetary value—and then demanding campaign-finance paperwork for it.
Kruse and LGW are right to fight this. Political speech shouldn’t come with a government-assigned price tag. Read more at The Center Square.
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