In the final hours before “House of origin” cutoff on Tuesday afternoon, the Democrat-controlled Washington State Senate wasted precious time passing a truly meaningless reform of the governor’s emergency powers.  This is how Democrat legislators want to provide political cover for continuing to enable Governor Jay Inslee in his never-ending abuse of his authority (now on Day 718). Make no mistake, if this legislation ultimately passes, Governor Inslee can continue to undemocratically ignore the legislative branch of government (as well as local elected officials and health experts).

Along party lines, the Senate passed SB 5909 which failed to place an actual time limit (which nearly every other state has) on how long the governor can rule under “emergency” powers. In practice this “reform” would not alter the current situation in Washington one bit, as the governor would remain basically unchecked in his actions.  The governor even admitted this “reform” bill would do absolutely nothing to limit his emergency authority when he stated, “We’re pleased this legislation does not hinder our state’s current response to COVID.”

Republican leaders accurately portrayed this bill as something which the Democrats’ vulnerable candidates can run for re-election on this November, by falsely stating they did something to limit the governor’s dictatorial authority.  Senate Republican leader John Braun (Centralia) and Senator Lynda Wilson (Vancouver) issued a joint statement discrediting the actions of the Democrat senators. “What this vote does most is spare our colleagues in the majority from having to go home and admit to constituents that they had ignored the emergency-powers question for a second straight year. But it’s only a matter of time before the people realize how little this bill actually would do, and they’ll be disappointed. Whether the House follows through or not, we will be back at this issue again in 2023.” (Washington Policy Center, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, Seattle Times, and Washington Senate Caucus media release)

This morning the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast released its latest quarterly projections revealing an additional $2.8 billion is expected in revenue over last November’s forecast.  Even more staggering, Washington State’s total revenues have increased $10.5 billion since the state’s last budget was adopted (during the 2021 legislative session).  Yet, Governor Inslee and Democrat lawmakers still refuse to provide Washington residents with any tax relief (sales, property, or B&O) as has been done in many other states across the country which also collected higher-than expected-revenues during the past year (often thanks to billions from federal taxpayers).

Despite state government’s budget nearly doubling in the nine years Governor Inslee has been in office (from $32 billion to more than $60 Billion), it is becoming evident that the Democrats want to use the unexpected revenue to permanently enlarge state government even further during the supplemental budget process. Even in this time of record-breaking inflation – thanks in part to the federal government sending out all those tax dollars to states — it is sadly clear that the Democrats’ priority to hire more government employees and exert more state control over people’s lives far exceeds any desire to help low income or fixed income individuals financially suffering under the Democrats’ inflation and could use a tax break. (February 16 Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast, Washington Policy Center, and Washington State Budget History)

Democrat Senators continued to move without haste to increase billions in taxes and fees by passing their bloated $16 billion transit/bike/pedestrian focused transportation package.  Despite state coffers overflowing in billions with unexpected revenues, the Democrats’ bill will increase some state fees by as much as 500% and allow cities to put another 2% tax on your phone.  Senator Simon Sefzik (R – Ferndale) spoke of the low- and fixed-income households most impacted by the Democrats’ increase in fees during the debate on the partisan legislation (SB 5974).  The new senator asserted, “Even if the bill is constitutional, which it isn’t.  Even if the bill is workable, which it isn’t.  And even if it is reasonable, which it isn’t.  The biggest fear I have is that people will get left behind with this package.”

The Senate Transportation Committee’s top Republican member Senator Curtis King (Yakima) chided Democrats for breaking a long-standing tradition of proposing bi-partisan transportation packages, by not including a single Republican lawmaker in developing the latest proposal. “Transportation for decades has been a non-partisan area.  This bill makes it partisan.  This bill makes it very partisan.”  Evidently the Democrat legislators are finally taking the divisive advice of Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal who notoriously on 2019 election night called for Democrat legislators to punish those who supported I-976 (to reduce car tabs) by not including funding of projects in moderate and conservative areas of the state. That is exactly what this so-called transportation bill does, sending billions to Seattle for transit/bike projects and pittances to other areas. The bill now moves to the House of Representatives, where it will be heard in the Transportation Committee tomorrow at 3:30 pm, as HB 2119. (Washington Republican Senate Caucus audio report, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Chris Reykdal Twitter)

Yesterday afternoon, as legislative Democrats were wasting precious time passing a meaningless reform of the governor’s emergency powers before the 5:00 pm cutoff, the governor’s team was busy blasting out emails and posting social media ads for a Zoom event with former Vice President Al Gore and the Biden White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy that is occurring this evening at 5:30 PM.  They will likely spend most of their time heaping praise on each other and labeling fellow participants as “True Champions of the Planet,” though Inslee might be a little subdued in praising McCarthy since she took one of the Biden Administration jobs which our “green” governor coveted.  We wonder if the entertainment for the event will be in deciding which one of them has been unchallenged in the media for making the most irresponsible or unscientific climate statement in the past few years.  Our money is on Governor Inslee winning that contest with his comment last summer (which still no member of the media has challenged) in which he claimed that Seattle temperatures would soon reach 130 degrees.  (Governor Inslee Twitter and Seattle Times)

The Washington State government is experiencing some of the negative effects of the Democrats’ recent pro-criminal legislation by being a repeat victim of recent burglaries. The Olympia offices of the Washington State of Children, Youth, and Families has twice been broken into during the past couple of weeks.  The first incident resulted in new laptop computers, cell phones, and other electronics being stolen.   It is still unknown what was taken during the second break-in a couple of days later when offices were ransacked. (The Olympian)

A quick note to acknowledge the passing of one of our favorite political satirists, PJ O’Rourke.  His books on our nation’ political culture (most notably “Parliament of Whores” and “Eat the Rich”) are “must reads” for those who follow American politics, While there are literally dozens of insightful O’Rourke quotes being circulated in the past 24 hours, one of our favorites is, “When buying and selling are controlled by legislation, the first things to be bought and sold are legislators.” (The Atlantic, Amazon, and BrainyQuote)

King County will be ending its vaccine requirements to enter bars, restaurants, gyms, theaters, and other businesses on March 1^st.  These restrictions, which the county government placed on hospitality and entertainment establishments (many of whom had been financially suffering since the start of the pandemic) in October 2021, brought customer relations difficulties to some businesses and were largely ignored by others. Hopefully this will enable many eateries to resume service inside their dining rooms for the first time in two years. (KOMO News)

Tacoma, like most cities across the state, has seen an explosion of criminal activity after the passage of the “police reform” laws by the Democrat-controlled legislature and signed by Governor Inslee in 2021. During the past year aggravated assaults have increased 49.9%, arsons have skyrocketed 79.9%, break-ins have gone up 10.2%, and vandalism has risen 15%. Thanks Democrats! (KOMO News)

Now that redistricting is finally complete in the state, national political pundits are beginning to re-categorize congressional races, and most are calling for a very tight race in Washington’s 8^th Congressional District.  The expected mega-expensive contest will feature three noteworthy Republican challengers (King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn, 2020 8^th Congressional District candidate Jesse Jensen, and 2020 Washington State Attorney General Candidate Matt Larkin) vying to take on two-term liberal incumbent Representative Kim Schrier. The University of Virginia’s Sabato’s Crystal Ball has categorized this race as a “toss-up.”  (University of Virginia Center for Politics and Shift’s Newsmaker Interviews)

A new report from the Washington Policy Center calls for a balance between local and state interests over the culling of predatory animals. Conflict often arises, as local officials tend to respond quickly to the impact of predatory animals on livestock, while there are many at the state level who naively believe that no predatory animal should be killed.  The Democrat-sponsored SB 5613 takes a liberal urban perspective in banning the hunting of some predatory animals and goes too far in leaving farm animals unprotected against attacks. (Washington Policy Center and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

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