Today Washington State held its first auction of CO2 allowances as part of Governor Inslee’s “Cap and TradeTax” policy, which thus far has been an administrative disaster.  Because of Inslee Administration failures, there has been marketplace confusion on whether fuel distributors are allowed to include the price of the new tax in their bills before the price is actually known.  Meanwhile many farmers remain upset that Governor Inslee did not follow the law when he failed to develop a method to exempt the state’s agriculture community from paying the higher fuel prices caused by the misguided policy.

A Washington Policy Center report describes the confusion which has taken place due to conflicting messages being sent out by different Inslee Administration departments. This confusion is mostly due to the Department of Ecology (DOE) missing the deadline by two months to conduct the first auction (which was legally scheduled to take place at the start of the year). Yet since fuel distributors are retroactively responsible for the tax since its January 1^st implementation, they have had to guess what the tax will be. So far comparisons with other Western states show that prices in Washington State have increased 24 cents a gallon as part of the attempt to adjust to the Inslee scheme.

The WPC report explains that the Department of Ecology is criticizing fuel distributors for increasing consumer prices to collect the funds they are responsible for paying.  The DOE asserts they distributors shouldn’t raise the prices now because the taxes don’t have to be paid until November 2024.  Yet this is not how the state’s Department of Revenue advises businesses to collect on other taxes (such as the sales tax) which they are responsible for paying. For example, the Department of Revenue tells businesses they “should collect sales tax on items at the time of its sale”.

As of today, there has been no word from the Inslee Administration on how they are going to follow the law and exempt farmers from the increase in fuel prices. This failure is hurting our state’s small family farmers who had not budgeted for another state-level increase in fuel costs, because the 2021 cap and tradetax legislation exempted them from the Inslee increase. This is the latest sign of disrespect the Democrats have shown the state’s agriculture community.  Well, at least the governor has stopped transporting maggot-infested apples into Eastern Washington. (Washington Policy Center, Capital Press, and Spokesman Review)

The Everett Herald published an op-ed from another greedy liberal who believes she (and her fellow progressives) deserves more of the money other people earn.  Treasure Mackley of Invest in Washington Now (a far-Left organization that unabashedly advocates that taxes should be even higher so people like her can receive even more taxpayer money without actually working) claims the state needs even more tax revenue to further increase the size of state government by implementing the Democrats’ 2021 state income tax on capital gains, which a Douglas County Superior Court judge ruled was unconstitutional. Evidently the state budget more than doubling in size during the 10 years Jay Inslee has been governor is not fast enough for her and other liberals, which is why the Washington State Supreme Court is currently reviewing the lower court’s ruling.

We could write 5,000 words about the many inaccuracies within Mackley’s op-ed, but let’s just focus on a few.

Like all liberals, Mackley conveniently forgets to mention that the Douglas County judge used a century of legal precedent in deciding that Inslee’s state income tax on capital gains tax was illegal.  She also failed to mention that every other state in the country and the IRS have stated that a tax on capital gains is a tax on income – which is why it is illegal in our state.  And while Mackley claims “poll after poll after poll” have demonstrated public support for the tax (yet none of the polls she listed accurately described the tax or was at all relevant to the tax the Democrats jammed through), she failed to mention that 10 times Washington State voters have shot down attempts to impose an income tax in Washington State.

If Mackley is so convinced that people support the tax, then be honest with everyone and put it on the ballot.  Remember, the legislative authors of the tax including a phony “emergency” clause in the legislation which actually prohibited voters from voting on the tax through a referendum. Apparently the Democrat legislators knew the voters would not support this unnecessary and unconstitutional tax which will kill jobs, but because liberals like Mackley want an even bigger and more costly state government, they continue to lie about it. (Everett Herald,  The Center Square, and Washington Policy Center)

Tomorrow will be the third anniversary of Governor Inslee imposing emergency orders at the start of the COVID pandemic.  The governor went on to abuse his emergency powers for 975 days, conveniently ending it just before last November’s mid-term elections (providing even more proof that the governor used emergency powers for political purposes and not for the health and safety of Washington State residents).

While many Democrat legislators promised voters last fall they would consider joining Republicans in bringing much needed reforms to the state’s emergency powers laws, they have not followed through on that promise once they were re-elected.  There were two emergency powers reform bills (HB 1535 and SB 5063) introduced this session, yet neither received a hearing in the Democrat-controlled legislature. Evidently promises were forgotten once the Democrats set foot in Olympia. (Governor Inslee media release and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

A man was shot and killed in Seattle’s Georgetown neighborhood on Monday night, bringing the 2023 homicide total to 11 victims. With the year less than one-sixth complete (and warm summer nights still to come), the city is well on pace to eclipse the record of 52 victims killed last year.  Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell has now been in office for 14 months, and as David Horsey portrayed in a recent editorial cartoon, he still has no plan to reduce crime in Seattle. One would think there would be some inkling of a plan made public by now, especially since the mayor is very familiar with all of the players and strategies involved in the city’s public safety discussions from his previous 12 years as a city council member (four of which were as council president).

It is beginning to appear that Mayor Harrell will become the sixth consecutive Seattle mayor (like Paul Schell, Greg Nickels, Mike McGinn, Ed Murray, and Jenny Durkan), to leave office in disgrace and/or by the vote of the public. This trend is an indication that maybe Seattle’s adherence to liberal-only policies have made the city unmanageable to govern. (Seattle Police Blotter and Seattle Times)

Wheat farmer and Washington State Senator Mark Schoesler claims the state’s agriculture community is not receiving a fair shake from the urban liberals who control state government.  The former Senate Republican leader said that a clear example is the failure of the Inslee Administration to follow state law to provide an exemption to the fuel price increase caused by the governor’s cap and tradetax policy.  The senator also said the new overtime wage rules are another clear sign of the disrespect shown by the Democrats. “Our farm workers are better treated than Amazon or Wal-Mart employees on an hourly basis, and in many cases get superior benefits but nobody’s targeting Amazon or Wal-Mart they’re targeting farmers.” (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

The Washington House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed Republican legislation to limit the amount of light pollution caused by wind farms which are consuming former farmlands in Central Washington.  The legislation (HB 1173) calls for the blinking lights on top of wind turbines to be turned off unless there are aircraft in the vicinity. Easy to install aircraft detectors will be placed on each wind farm to activate the lights.  The bill was sponsored by freshman legislator Representative April Connor (R – Kennewick) and received support from the state’s aviation community.   Representative Connor said, “This bill is about preserving the beauty of our night sky.” The bill now goes to the Washington State Senate for consideration. (Tri-City Herald and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview was with Senator Mike Padden (R – Spokane Valley), the Ranking Republican member of the Senate’s Law & Justice Committee.  The senator is a graduate of the Gonzaga University School of Law, and he served as a Spokane County District Court judge for 12 years prior to becoming a state senator in 2011.  Senator Padden represents the 4^th Legislative District, which includes the cities of Spokane Valley, Liberty Lake, Colbert, and the rural communities of Northeast Spokane County.

In his interview, Senator Padden discussed his efforts to reform the Democrats’ “ridiculous” restrictions on police pursuit and the Democrats’ current “misguided” legislation to prohibit police officers from stopping vehicles with expired tabs or faulty equipment, and from pulling over drivers who have suspended licenses or outstanding warrants.  The senator stated his opinion that the legislature must make drug possession a Class C felony and reverse the Democrats’ disastrous 2021 legislation which essentially decriminalized possession of such lethal drugs as fentanyl, meth, and heroin.

Senator Padden also described his efforts to improve housing availability and to oppose legislation to make assisted suicide even easier in Washington State. Finally, the senator provided his thoughts on the state budget and why there is plenty of money available to provide tax relief to lower- and middle- income workers, if only Democrats were willing to reduce taxes. (Click to read full Newsmaker interview)

Democrat lawmakers are not only doing all they can to increase the size, cost, and power of state government, but they are also working hard to make sure their actions are kept secret.  Any history buff knows that it is very dangerous to have a powerful government that is permitted to operate in darkness, but this is exactly what the Democrats in Olympia are striving to perfect as they continue to take advantage of their one-party rule in our state.

The latest example of the Democrats’ wanting to keep their actions secret from both the media and the public has been their recent fabrication of the term “legislative privilege.” Democrats have repeatedly used the phrase to justify withholding and/or redacting documents and communications sought in public records requests.  The issue will likely be decided by the courts, as both media members and good government advocates are outraged by the Democrat legislators’ latest attempt to remove their own accountability to those they are supposed to serve. Shameful. (Click to read full Shift Article)

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