It wouldn’t be a Washington legislative session if Democrats were not proposing new taxes – and misleading voters on what their proposals would actually cost taxpayers. One such example of this all-too-common phenomenon was Senate Bill 5770, the tripling of the local property tax, which Democrats finally abandoned under public pressure over the weekend. Another one is House Bill 2276, a real estate tax that is very much alive.

Shift is pleased to raise awareness on HB 2276 through this opinion piece from Scott Walker, the vice president of Rush Residential, a division of The Rush Companies, a Puget Sound-area residential development and home building company. As Mr. Walker aptly points out, “Only in the up-is-down world of Olympia could someone propose creating affordable housing by making housing more expensive.”

You can read on the learn that “Washington already has one of the highest real estate excise taxes (REET) in the country” and that “if the bill becomes law, Washington’s total taxes on this type of sale would be nearly 40 times the tax rate in California” here … HB 2776 Opinion Editorial.

Democrat legislators are clearly afraid of the six citizen initiatives that have been certified for their action during this legislative session. Just how afraid is apparent by the refusal to hold public hearings on any of the initiatives, combined with a coordinated PR campaign attacking the initiatives through what can only be called misinformation.

The latest example is from Center Square capturing Democrat Senate Leader Andy Billig proclaiming that voters might “devastate early learning and childcare programs relied on by families across Washington” if they repeal the state’s controversial income tax on capital gains. Evidently, Sen. Billig forgot that the law up for repeal through I-2109 has been in effect for almost one whole year, and the Democrats could have funded the programs they claim the new tax does with existing revenue (if that was the goal, instead of creating a state income tax).

Read on to see how the state Department of Revenue is the latest under Governor Jay Inslee to make random claims with numbers that just happen to fit their bosses’ political agenda here… Center Square.

The news has been months/years in the making, as Shift has covered since our inception, but the state Department of Transportation is finally ready to jack up toll rates to $15 per segment on I-405 and Highway 167, starting March 1. That reality led the Seattle Times to prepare a lengthy piece on what to expect with the higher charges, including “toll rate changes at a minimum of $1 as often as every five minutes.”

The $15 per segment toll could cost a driver going from Woodinville to Tacoma up to $90 round trip during a daily commute. Read on to understand that Democrats are blaming their party’s own inflation-causing government spending policies as the reason for the extreme toll increase as “the state needs more money to keep up with national construction inflation.”… Shift, Seattle Times.

Shift has often pointed out that the policies passed into law by Democrats in Olympia tend to benefit their largest campaign donors, providing significant investment returns for those donors. The latest example of how Democrats prioritize taxpayer money for campaign donors is the news from the Washington State Standard that a bill passed in the middle of the night so “striking workers would become eligible for unemployment insurance on the second Sunday following the first day of a strike.”

Democrats are happy to have the state sending checks to striking workers, because that will help generate more union dues (and thus more campaign contributions). Read on to see how even “Five Democrats sided with Republicans against” the bill, which now goes on to the Senate here… Shift, Washington State Standard.

Shift would prefer not to give the professional protestors on the Left any more attention, but this KOMO News story does indicate that more pro-terrorist protestors want to be arrested for interfering with the daily lives of other people. So, King County Prosecutor, let’s get prosecuting… KOMO News.

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