Jay Inslee’s PR people are in overdrive attempting to control the message during our green governor’s budget roll out. Earlier this week, Shift pointed out how Inslee’s team is asking local reporters for help in keeping criticism at a minimum.
The crux of Inslee’s PR strategy appears to be framing what is clearly a tax as a “charge” or a “fee.” Inslee has refrained, at all costs, from calling his cap-and-tax scheme and his fuel mandate by the usual policy names. Instead, Inslee refers to his extreme green agenda items as a “carbon charge” and “clean fuel standard.”
The lengths Inslee and his teams have gone to hide the truth behind his extreme agenda explains why one member of his PR staff, Jaime Smith, lashed out at King 5 when the news outlet dared to tweet that Inslee’s transportation plan—which creates a cap-and-tax scheme—includes a gas tax. Check out the Twitter exchange that ensued after the Washington Policy Center’s environmental expert Todd Myers jumped in.
