Should the state recategorize 12-step meetings to allow in-person meetings to resume? Governor Inslee’s decision to prohibit in-person Alcoholics Anonymous and other 12-step meetings from occurring has forced recovery meetings to take place on Zoom and has caused meeting attendance to plummet. At the same time, both alcohol and marijuana sales are at record levels.  Yet, if 12-step programs were recategorized as “faith-based” instead of “group counseling,” many of the groups could resume meeting in-person. (Shift Article)

The Yakima Herald called Employment Security Department actions “shameful,” as it fails to provide information to the Washington State Auditor’s office, which is investigating the hundreds of millions of dollars stolen by foreign criminals and the department’s slow response to provide unemployment benefits to deserving Washington residents. The Herald was specifically critical of Governor Inslee’s ESD Commissioner Suzi LeVine for her attempts to hinder the investigation as she demanded investigators alter their process in obtaining required information. The editorial states, “It makes no sense whatsoever to hinder those audits. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been lost and Washingtonians who are suffering from joblessness are not getting the services they need and deserve.” Sounds almost like Shift there. (Yakima Herald)

As predicted, Democrat legislators are floating the concept of spreading the City of Seattle’s payroll (income) tax to the state level. This is the latest greedy attempt by the Democrats to open yet another revenue stream to pay for more expensive government programs desired by the state employee unions.  The tax would be paid by employers which have a world-wide compensation level of more than $7 million (and we know this threshold will be quickly reduced once the tax has been imposed).  The Democrats are floating this measure even though state revenues have already increased 10.7% during this biennium and while many state businesses are financially suffering due the loss of revenue during the COVID-19 pandemic.  Democrats make these proposals and then wonder why Boeing and Amazon continue to move jobs to other states (where they do not punish companies because they employ workers). (Washington Policy Center)

Governor Inslee’s Washington Recovery Group, the collection of state agencies assigned to “coordinate the state’s COVID-19 pandemic recovery activities and set priorities that strengthen the resiliency of our state and all Washingtonians” has met only once since mid-October. The group is not scheduled to meet again until after the new year. Apparently, the state’s recovery from the pandemic is not a priority for the governor, especially when he is so focused on obtaining one of the few remaining jobs in the Biden Administration. (Office of Financial Management)

Representative Roger Goodman (D – Kirkland), the Chair of the Policing Policy Leadership Team stated, “There’s going to be a lot of disagreement when we get to the details, but it’s not as adversarial as one might imagine,” regarding the work his group will conduct as they make recommendation on police reform measures. Since the group is made up entirely of Democrats, there is little chance of disagreements. While the group did take testimony from some law enforcement organizations, not including Republicans on the “Team” that will be making suggestions, certainly foretells the direction of its recommendations. (News Tribune, Shift, and House Democrat Caucus)

Since his own children are failing classes, Washington State Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal is finally admitting what Republican lawmakers (and his 2020 election opponent Maia Espinosa) have been saying for months – the state’s distance learning program is failing Washington State students. Reykdal finally came to this realization after his son, who Reykdal states was a 3.9 GPA student, is currently failing two classes.  During the campaign, Reykdal defended distance learning to those who sought to bring students back to class.  Yet now that the election is over, the SPI says, “This instructional model does not work for a lot of kids, period.” (KPQ Radio)

Washington State cannabis sales are up over 20% each month during the pandemic compared to last year. Last May sales were 43.8% higher than they were in 2019, and August sales were 41% greater than last year. One of the reasons for the increased sales was the unexpected income many people received from the federal stimulus package which arrived just as Washington residents were ordered to stay home by Governor Inslee. (Everett Herald)

Seattle Councilmember Kshama Sawant is receiving large out of state contributions to fund her defense against the recall effort against her. While the recall effort against the Socialist councilmember has received 82% of its funding from people residing in Seattle (and nearly all contributions come from King County residents), Sawant’s campaign is heavily dependent on out of state contributions. 31 of Sawant’s $500 or more contributions come from out of state donors and only 29 large contributions came from people living in Seattle.(MyNorthwest and Seattle Ethics and Elections filings)

The Puget Sound Indexer conducted an interesting study on the costs and “farebox recovery” for agencies providing paratransit service and Puget Sound ferries. Paratransit is the transportation service provided to those who have disabilities which prevent them from using regular transit service and is required by federal law.  Each of the paratransit services in Whatcom, Snohomish, King, Kitsap, Pierce, and Thurston County are subsidized by at least 95%, with taxpayers in Whatcom, King, and Snohomish County paying 99% of the costs.  The ferries, due mostly to the higher number of passengers per vehicle trip, have a slightly lower subsidized rate than local bus transit system. State taxpayers subsidize the state ferry system at a 72% rate while smaller ferry services have taxpayers responsible for 53% – 62% of the cost. (Puget Sound area bus services are subsidized by the taxpayers for 70% – 92% of their costs.)  (Puget Sound Indexer)

Slidewater’s Park, the popular Lake Chelan waterpark, has settled its dispute with the Washington State Department of Health over its defiance of Governor Inslee’s orders last summer. The park opened for nearly 30 days before it was forced to close in mid-July. According to the park’s legal representatives from the Freedom Foundation, the Department of Health has agreed to drop its threat to impose fines and revoke the park’s permits. The park still has nearly $10,000 in fines from the Washington State Department of Labor and Industry. (NCWLife)

Good news for Snake River dams advocates as Congresswoman Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R – WA) was elected ranking member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. The Eastern Washington representative has long been a strong supporter of the dams which have been targeted by wealthy Seattle environmental groups. (The Hill)

When Democrats start accusing other Democrats of corruption, it must be really bad.  Democrat State Auditor Pat McCarthy sent Governor Jay Inslee and his Employment Security Department (ESD) Commissioner Suzi LeVine a stern letter stating that auditors, who are conducting five separate investigations of the dysfunctional department, were encountering “management interference” that was hampering their efforts to conduct legally required audits of the department.  This has led many to wonder what is the Inslee Administration and his ESD leadership team trying to hide from an auditor’s office that is conducting investigations into whether ESD management decisions allowed one of the largest thefts in American history to take place and why it took so long for tens of thousands Washington residents to receive their benefits after losing their jobs due to Inslee’s emergency orders.  This latest incident has increased the call for Governor Inslee to fire Commissioner LeVine for her colossal mismanagement of the ESD and taxpayer funds. (Shift Article)

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