The staff at Shift is winding down from another eventful year in Washington State politics, to spend more time with family and friends over the holidays but, before a last shopping blitz, we wanted to thank you for your continued support of our efforts.  Those of us at the Daily Briefing are grateful that we remain the most read daily political newsletter in the Pacific Northwest – thanks to our Shift readers sharing our articles and telling their friends about our coverage of the news the old guard media just gets wrong, or is afraid to cover at all.

We look forward to commentating on news in 2022, as events will unfold which may allow our state to build on some important gains made this year with more substantive election victories next November.

We are planning a few special editions of the Daily Briefing over the holidays, so keep your eyes on your emails.  We believe you will enjoy the Boxing Day gift we have planned for everyone next Sunday morning.

Again, thank you for your support.  We wish you a joyous holiday season!  We look forward to resuming the Daily Briefing in the new year.

Cheers!

Even though Governor Jay Inslee has more than doubled the cost of state government during his nine years in office ($31.2 billion during the 2011-2013 budget and $62.1 billion for Inslee’s 2021-2023 proposed budget), he has refused to improve services important to prospective new employers trying to create new jobs by starting businesses here.  Shift readers provided us with details of how Inslee’s Department of Labor and Industries (L&I) only has one person (working one day a week) to approve the permits for all of the food truck businesses in Washington State. Reportedly there are more than 1,000 applicants waiting for L&I to provide the necessary permits.  When asked why it is taking so long, L&I officials say they need more money.  We suggest taking some money the state currently wastes closing businesses and moving it over to those who can help entrepreneurs create new opportunities. (Click to read full Shift article)

As we reported yesterday, the state told its employees their paychecks will still be hit by the payroll tax for the Democrats’ poorly developed Long-Term Care plan (i.e. the ironically named “WA Cares” program) despite Governor Inslee and Democrat legislative leaders saying they were delaying its implementation until at least April.   This is certainly causing confusion among private sector employers as well, as they decide whether or not they must also deduct the tax from their employees’ paychecks starting January 1^st.

Showing a different approach, Republican legislators have listened to their constituents’ concerns and have called on Governor Inslee and the majority Democrats to hold a virtual special session now to remove any confusion.  State Senate Republican Leader John Braun and House Republican Leader JT Wilcox issued this joint statement calling for such a session.

“The governor’s announcement last week that the ‘Washington Cares’ long-term care tax would be delayed led everyone to believe that the tax would not be collected from their paychecks come January. State employees received notice that only those who have already been granted an exemption to the program will not have the tax deducted. Otherwise, the tax will be collected as originally planned. How is this a delay? How has the governor helped matters? He hasn’t. The governor’s announcement changed nothing. The only thing it did was publicly acknowledge that the program is a mess.

“We need to go into a special session before the state begins collecting the tax and repeal this bill – even if it’s over the holidays, using virtual technology to meet on short notice. The program is so unpopular that more than 400,000 Washingtonians applied for an exemption and thousands of others want out but couldn’t get a private policy before the deadline. Why? Because the way the law as written drove insurance carriers to pull out of Washington.

“Under the current law, it is legally questionable if anyone who has the money deducted from their paycheck won’t receive it back – not even if they are granted an exemption. People are angry. The governor stands to make them even angrier if he fails to have the legislative branch address this before January 1.”

We will see if the Democrats are listening to the concerns of their constituents and if they are willing to fix the mess which they alone have created, by now calling a special session to eliminate the confusion. (Olympia Watch Twitter and House Republican Caucus media release)

Governor Jay Inslee said it was “asinine” for anyone to ask him about the repetitive failure of his previous climate policies.  It is worth remembering (even if he doesn’t think so) that the governor’s earlier environmental efforts were failing so poorly that the state scrubbed them from his “Results Washington” webpage prior to the launch of his failed five-month presidential campaign.  Ironically, the governor now uses his past failures as the main reason why the state should spend even more money and give him even more regulatory control, so that he can fail even more spectacularly. (Click to read full Shift article)

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