Jay Inslee deserves the Washington State version of PolitiFact’s “Lie of the Year” award, Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat wrote recently, for breaking his campaign promise to veto new taxes. As Shift reported, candidate Inslee once said that he “would veto anything that heads the wrong direction, and the wrong direction is new taxes in the state of Washington.” Last week, Governor Inslee proposed $1.5 billion in new taxes.
We agree, Inslee has clearly earned his “Lie of the Year” – but for more reasons than Westneat noted.
The columnist is absolutely correct that Inslee lied and that Inslee the Governor is not who Inslee the Candidate said he’d be. As Westneat points out, Inslee’s new tax proposal breaks his promise, but he’d already done so. In his first session in 2013, he proposed extending temporary taxes and adding new ones, including a new tax on beer.
With his “veto taxes” lie out of the way, Inslee is now setting up the Big Lie. Inslee’s new budget proposal is based around this Big Lie, namely, that “circumstances have changed” that caused him to propose new taxes. That’s a lie; Inslee always knew he wanted to raise taxes.
Yesterday, on KOMO radio, he laid out the premises of his Big Lie.
1. Inslee hoped to avoid proposing new taxes because he supported ending some tax exemptions. As anyone, including former Democratic Governor Chris Gregoire could tell you, closing so-called tax loopholes doesn’t gain you much revenue – certainly not as much as Democrats want to spend. In fact, Inslee previously proposed ending tax breaks worth a few hundred million dollars, but wants to spend billions more in his budget proposal.
2. The state Supreme Court is forcing the state to spend more on schools and mental health. He’s right that the mental health decision is new, and it will cost the state around $60 million. But that’s not what’s driving state spending.
The big-ticket item there is the McCleary education case. When Inslee discusses it, he purposely talks about the contempt hearing the Supreme Court held this year so as not to remind you that the McCleary case itself was decided back in 2012. That means the court had already ruled that the Democrats in charge of Olympia for decades had underfunded schools before Inslee made his “veto taxes” pledge during his campaign. It’s not a “new circumstance” by any stretch.
3. The state has already saved hundreds of millions of dollars by implementing lean management. Unfortunately, as pointed out by Senate budget chair Andy Hill, Inslee didn’t use any of his so-called lean management savings to help taxpayers. He just spent it on more state government. Hill told the Times, “In the last two budgets I’ve written, he’s resisted violently booking any savings based on lean management. It was a hard no.”
All we can assume from Inslee’s Big Lie setup is that he knew he would need to spend billions more for education, but he didn’t want to tell voters he’d raise taxes to fit it into the state budget. So the question is, what else is he trying to fit into the budget that requires his massive tax increases?
That’s pretty obvious. The whopping $1.5 billion price tag for employee pay raises are the real reason Inslee wants $1.5 billion in new taxes. Inslee could not pass on the opportunity to reward his million dollar campaign donors—even at the expense of his promise to voters.
So will the people of the state of Washington believe Jay’s Big Lie? Or will the truth – $1.5 billion in new taxes for $1.5 billion in pay raises to Jay’s top campaign contributors – be obvious enough?
The short term solution is Inslee needs to be recalled. The long term solution is a new 51st state. As long as the Washington voter is too afraid to vote and is controlled by the ultra liberal Seattle Progressives elimination of this influence and a new east side state is the only lasting solution.
And the big question remains…how does the “new State” fund itself when most of the wealth and cash flow is on the Westside of the Cascades…
There is more than enough money on the east side, particularly since we wouldn’t be sending any more dollars to Seattle. Let them survive on their own.
Le epic!
If anybody believed he was going to cut anything or veto anything that helped WA Tax payers, you’re a freaken idiot!
Republicans and Democrats are the same, if you don’t know that by now, you’re a freaken idiot!
He has lied since 1992 when he lied to get elected to Washington’s 4 district. The good people of the 4th district booted his lying ass out. So then he goes to a liberal district where people are too stupid to know the truth and fall for anything.
What Jay Inslee does isn’t anything new. Politicians have been lying to us since 1777. If you one of the idiots who follow one of the two major political parties in this country, you are part of the problem. Both sides of the isle have their heads shoved so far up corporate America’s ass, all they care about from the moment they get into office, is satisfying their masters, and getting re-elected. All of their self serving maneuvering and vindictive actions toward their opposition assures us that we won’t see anything positive from them. Lobbying should be banned. How can we expect to be represented as long as we allow Lobbyist to bribe those we trust to do our bidding? If we were smart, we would demand a law is passed making it a felony to Lobby Congress.
Our Congress is like a High School clique and our governor’s are also deeply indebted to those who put them in office.
As long as Americans continue to vote along party lines, we won’t see anything different than what we have always seen. Nothing!
The answer is to get rid of professional politicians, the founders had that figured out how long ago. But, we’ll likely never do it…
Amen AMEN
There is nothing wrong with politicians that a guillotine can’t solve. Just saying.
whats a gulitone? is it a computer?
A “convention of states” by the people, provided under Article V of the constitution, looks to me to be the only way to reign in the Federal government, by making them follow the constitution and rule of law, and give the rightful power back to the states, is the only way to give the state’s money back so they can run their affairs the way each state wants to. In other words get the corrupt
feds off of our collective backs! Not to mention our individual freedoms!
So, it is politics as usual in Washington State with the Democrats in charge. Tax and spend except when it is spend and tax. It is like the vote on I-594, 10 counties drive the rest of the state.
Le epic!~
someone call for the rubber cookie truck, Inslee has lost whatever mind he had left.