Senator Marko Liias (D – Edmonds), who previously failed to accept responsibility for his own personal bankruptcy (instead blaming the vague actions of “Wall Street”), is again failing to take personal responsibility for provisions within the Democrats’ transportation package which have greatly upset Washington State’s neighbors.  Senator Liias, as the brand-new Chair of the Senate Transportation Committee, included in his first plan $2 billion in revenue to be collected through a 6-cents-a-gallon tax on fuel that is refined in Washington State and exported to other states. Thus, this “Liias tax” would be paid for by consumers in Alaska, Idaho, and Oregon to fund transportation projects in Washington State.  As could be expected, Republican and Democrat lawmakers in those states have immediately retaliated by proposing legislation to impose taxes on their products sold to Washington. Senator Liias has dismissed this unprecedented level of outrage from our neighbors as a lot of “rhetoric.”

Many legal experts believe the Democrats’ poorly developed transportation funding scheme is unconstitutional (there’s this little thing called the Commerce Clause in Article 1, Section 8).   Yet Senator Liias said he is “well-counseled” and he will move forward with whatever twisted logic he can to help ram the transportation package through the Democrat-controlled House, just as he got it through the Senate last week by falsely stating that the “Liias tax” exists elsewhere in the United States.

We wonder if this is the same legal “counselor” the senator used in 2008, when he ran up nearly a million dollars in debt (including student loans) before filing for bankruptcy.  In his 2016 (failed) campaign to become Washington State Treasurer, Liias made the strange claim “I am a smart and dedicated financial thinker.” Yet both his personal and public financial actions prove the exact opposite. (Seattle Times and Seattle PI)

The Democrats’ legislation to allow those with life sentences to go free after serving just 20 years appears to be dead in the Washington State House of Representatives.  Sponsored by Senator Manka Dhingra (D – Redmond), SB 5036 passed the Senate earlier this month along straight party lines. Evidently senate Democrats are unaware that the public is extremely irritated by the liberal’s soft-on-crime policies.  Yet, the bill appears to be dead in the House after members of the Washington State Clemency and Pardons Board stated their opposition and the Washington Association of Prosecutors pulled its support.

Similar to many other Democrat legislative proposals (such as their 2021 “police reform” package and Governor Inslee’s proposal to increase buffer zones around rivers and streams in rural communities), experts are upset with the lack of research and outreach conducted by Democrats who wrote the bill.  The chair of the Clemency Board expressed his outrage over the poor development of the legislation, saying “There was absolutely no request of this board or any member of the board for any input on the bill — it was only after the bill cratered last year. Then it came as a surprise to the board when it came out of the Senate this year.” (MyNorthwest and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Sales of marijuana products in Washington State exploded during the pandemic, just as Governor Inslee’s unilateral decisions prohibited 12-step addiction recovery programs in the state from meeting in-person – a decision he kept in place longer than nearly every other state in the country.  Data from the Washington State Liquor and Cannabis Board reveals that legal marijuana sales jumped 43% between 2019 and 2021. There are no figures available on illegal marijuana sales, which cater primarily to those under 21 and to those who do not want to pay the elevated prices on legal products due to high state taxes.

When restrictions were imposed at the start of the pandemic, 12-step groups such as Alcoholics Anonymous and Narcotics Anonymous immediately moved meetings to the Zoom platform, but soon experienced a severe drop in attendance. While nearly all other states allowed addiction recovery meetings to resume (under strict health and safety guidelines) by early 2021, Governor Inslee’s rules prevented meetings in Washington State from resuming until July of last year. (Seattle Times and Shift)

Maybe, just maybe, the 2021 election results have finally encouraged some members of the Seattle City Council to stop following the unreasonable and unworkable demands of far-Left special interest groups.  Yesterday afternoon, Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant failed to override Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell’s previous decision to end the city’s eviction moratorium at the end of February.  By a vote of 5 – 3, the council rejected Councilmember Sawant’s attempt to extend the moratorium indefinitely.  The irresponsible councilmember had stated that, “Ending the eviction moratorium now would lead to a deadly wave of evictions, and increased homelessness.” Yet she failed to say how this would be different if the moratorium was lifted three months from now or three years from now.  Economists have determined that the moratorium has reduced the number of rental units available in Seattle, which has resulted in even higher rent rates. (Seattle Times, KING5 News, and MyNorthwest)

While culturally diverse and well-trained officers continue to leave the Seattle Police Department, the city has released crime data which demonstrates how the actions of the city’s liberal establishment have made the city less safe.  More than 350 officers have left the SPD in the past 18 months, with 20 more resigning in January (only five new officers were hired).  Overall crime rates have increased 10%, with violent crimes increasing 19% after the city councilmembers caved into violent liberal activists’ demands to defund the police department in 2020.  While the Democrats in the Washington State House of Representatives passed a bill (HB 1815) earlier this month to “study” catalytic converter thefts for another year (instead of supporting a Republican sponsored bill [SB 5495] which would greatly reduce catalytic converter thefts immediately), Seattle has seen a 79% increase in car parts robberies.  (KOMO News, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Senator Jeff Wilson media release)

Seattle City Councilmember Andrew Lewis wants to remove all the homeless encampments in Downtown Seattle and move them into 10 “fenced-in encampments” (i.e. cages) in neighborhoods throughout the city.  This is ironic because many of those who lived in the recently dismantled encampments in Seattle’s neighborhoods (such as the ones in Ballard Commons and Green Lake) have moved to the encampments in Downtown Seattle.  The plan, which has not been coordinated with the new Regional Homelessness Authority, would cost Seattle taxpayers an additional $8 to $12 million a year to operate.  Councilmember Lewis, who successfully ran for office in 2019 on a pledge to increase police funding before he caved into to liberal rioters’ demands in 2020 to defund the police, promised the 10 encampments would be “temporary.”  It is not known if one of the encampments will be placed in Councilman Lewis’ Lower Queen Anne neighborhood. (South Seattle Emerald/PubliCola)

The Kittitas Reclamation Project is repairing leaks in its outdated water irrigation system, yet much of the climate change hyperbole surrounding the project is not supported by data.  It is obviously a good thing to replace much of the decaying canals and reservoirs which cause more than 30% of the water to leak.  Yet many of those involved in the project say it is necessary because global warming is reducing the amount of snowpack in the Cascade Mountains and the KING5 story on these repairs was based on this belief.  The problem is this fact runs contrary to the scientific evidence.  Data shows that in 14 of the past 17 years the snowpack in Washington State mountains has been above normal. (KING5 News and Clark County Today)

Washington State University is considering imposing its own indoor facemask mandate after Governor Inslee’s mandate ends on March 21^st.  The WSU campus has been the center of multiple spikes in the COVID rates when students have returned to campus and subsequently disregarded safety and health guidelines against large gatherings.  School officials said they are talking with other state public universities about partnering in imposing their own mask requirements. (KQQQ Radio)

Do you like The Daily Briefing?

Please consider making a contribution to ensure Shift continues to provide daily updates on the shenanigans of the liberal establishment.

Forward this to a friend.  It helps us grow our community and serve you better.

You can also follow SHIFTWA on social media by liking us on Facebook and following us on Twitter.

If you feel we missed something that should be covered, email us at [email protected].