The Democrat Party’s ability to raise taxes over the past two years has been thwarted by the bi-partisan State Senate Majority Coalition Caucus (MCC). This reality has kept the liberals from growing the size of state government to the benefit their special interest allies, and is motivating their extremely negative campaign tactics so far this year.
One of the more obvious examples of the Democrats’ desperation has been the campaign of Matt Isenhower in the Eastside’s 45th District – mainly Redmond, Kirkland, Woodinville, and smaller towns to the East – where first-term State Senator Andy Hill has crafted a reputation for being a thoughtful legislator. Sen. Hill’s serious approach to creating a sustainable and balanced budget resulted in his being named as the Ways and Means Committee chairman mid-way through his first term.
Further, Sen. Hill’s insistence that state government spending needs to be reformed and more money spent on public education – instead of Isenhower and the Democrats’ goal of raising more taxes to feed bigger government – has made him a top target of the special interests that fund liberal campaigns (public employee unions, trial lawyers, extreme environmentalists, etc.)
Since Sen. Hill is at the top of the target list, that also means that Isenhower gets first crack at the Democrat talking points for attacking his opponent, which are on display in an op-ed in the Redmond Reporter this week. However, perhaps Isenhower should have read the article before he submitted it in his name, so he could understand what he was standing up for.
A key line of Isenhower’s misguided attack is that the State Senate “passed just $58 million” in new spending for public education in its supplemental budget, while leaving in place the $40 million recycled fuel tax incentive which he called a “massive” tax loophole. Seems like since the $58 million in new education spending is more than the $40 million in tax incentives that the education should have been called “massive” too, right?
But that fact didn’t fit with Mr. Isenhower’s Democrat talking points.
A second major theme of the op-ed was how much more money the state needs to be spending, without ever saying where that money will come from. Perhaps Isenhower should actually read the state budget then let prospective voters know what cuts he favors and what taxes he wants to raise. Of course, since he is receiving such strong support from the Democrat Party, one can only assume that he supports the party platform and wants to create a state income tax.
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