Jay Inslee has made a habit out of campaigning against tax increases before elections, and then breaking those promises after the voters in Seattle elect him (he has lost the vote in 2012 and 2016 in the rest of Washington State outside the city of Seattle).
Unfortunately for people who depend on the mainstream media for their news, local reporters won’t actually report on what Inslee is doing.
Take this story from the Puget Sound Business Journal (PSBJ) – which from the publication name you would assume reports on the news from a business perspective. Instead, here is the PSBJ lead on Inslee’s tax increase plans:
“Gov. Jay Inslee proposed $4.4 billion in new taxes – including on capital gains, carbon emissions and increases to the state’s business-and-occupation tax – to fully fund K-12 education in the state for the first time in decades.”
The reporter doesn’t mention that Inslee promised in 2012 that he would not seek tax increases to fund state government. Or that Inslee’s tax increases are not just for education – over $1 billion is for his “green” special interest campaign donors. Or that voters just last month rejected a carbon tax by over 59%. Nor does the PSBJ mention that it has been THREE decades of Democrat governors who have been underfunding education.
No, the “reporter” at the PSBJ just writes that Inslee is proposing tax increases for the kids.
Even worse is the Seattle Times, which should know better that Inslee doesn’t tell the truth. After all, it was a Times reporter that got Inslee to commit in 2012 that he would “veto” tax increases.
Yet, here is the Times, refusing to write that Inslee is seeking a state income tax, after campaigning against a state income tax this fall. Instead, the Times just writes that “Inslee is proposing new taxes on capital gains and carbon emissions.”
As Shift has pointed out, taxing capital gains is taxing income. But the Times doesn’t want to admit that, because the editorial board at the paper wants a state income tax, even if voters do not.
Of course, Inslee’s plan is dead on arrival, because it’s out of touch with the voters. Even Democrat leaders in the State House of Representatives won’t support their governor. From the Times, “House Majority Leader Pat Sullivan, D-Covington, said he was still reviewing Inslee’s proposal…the governor, added Sullivan, “shares a lot of our values.”
Jay shares their Democrat “values” for raising taxes, but they are afraid of jumping on board his tax-increase train that will never leave the station.
And, the Times writes that Republicans are even more blunt: “Senate Majority Leader Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, called the governor’s plan ‘far, far and away the single biggest tax increase in state history.’ Inslee’s plan ‘looks more like another attempt to impose a new carbon tax and a new tax on income and less like a way to thoughtfully address the K-12 funding question,’ Sen. Ann Rivers, R-La Center and a member of the state’s Education Funding Task Force, said in a statement.”
So the opening tax-increase salvo has been launched by Inslee. Will it even live to see the New Year?
Here we go again. It doesn’t matter what the amount of a new tax will be, it won’t be enough because our leaders simply cannot prioritize. Look at how much our state budget has increased over the last 15 years and then look at the so called issues that still exist: no money for schools, crumbling highway infrastructure, massive shortfalls in funding state worker pension plans. The list goes on and on and another 4 billion won’t matter-two years for the start of these taxes they’ll need another 4-5 billilon. This is just another joke of a proposal from a joke of a governor.
Governor moron. Elected by the high-density, low-information, government-subsidized voters of King county.
…government-subsidized voters of King county.
Wrong.
King County subsidizes the rest of the state — to the tune of $2.4 billion per year. King County’s taxpayers are actually 38th of 39 counties when ranked by ratio of benefits received to taxes paid.
It’s the heavily-subsidized citizens in counties east of the Cascades who tried to prevent Gov. Inslee’s relection — and failed. Maybe they need to learn how to work harder?
Governor moron. Elected by the high-density, low-information, government-subsidized voters of King county.
…government-subsidized voters of King county.
Not going to let mere facts get in the way of a good smear, eh? Well, if facts are not your friend, then smears are all you’ve got.
To show how chronic the welfare dependency has become east of the Cascades, here’s a link to a story on the 2008 report. Some things never change.
Your parents called (again). They want you out of their basement by the New Year…
Well, if facts are not your friend, then smears are all you’ve got.
Think they’re serious this time…as in they’ll get the King County Sheriff involved…
Have you yet figured out that King County taxpayers subsidize Republican voters statewide, or are you simply not permitted to know facts?
Tensor, So you are pro-51st statehood for eastern WA?
Put it in writing.
Tensor, So you are pro-51st statehood for eastern WA?
I don’t have an opinion on that. I was merely noting how much money flows from King County to places in eastern Washington. As Boots confirmed, that fact is not always accepted.
Put it in writing.
I already have, in another comment at Shift:
“If the fine citizens of eastern Washington want to petition Congress to form a new state, I won’t attempt to dissuade them.
“They should recognize their taxes will probably rise, and the amount of government services they enjoy (like paved roads) will be reduced. If they are happy with that trade, I have no objection.”
GOVERNOT!
I thought that the Wa state lottery was supposed to help fund the Education system?.