Last week one of Washington State’s most irresponsible, divisive, and expensive legislative sessions in history came to an end.  Shift provides an overview of the proceedings in which the Democrats firmly demonstrated that they believe they are above accountability, and that the greed of the state’s wealthy liberal establishment is more important than whether lower income households can afford to buy gas to drive to work or put food on the table.

Not only did the Democrats fail to provide any real tax relief to Washington families (despite an historic $15 billion in excess revenue!), but they also failed to fix their disastrous Long-Term Care payroll tax and the hastily written 2021 police reform laws which resulted in a dramatic spike in crime rates. The Democrats embarrassingly attempted to blame the GOP for their inability to pass a fake emergency powers reform bill and broke tradition by failing to include Republicans in the development of their massively expensive and transportation package.

The 2021 election allowed Seattle voters to tell their elected officials their radical policies had gone too far. Will the 2022 elections provide all of Washington State’s voters with the same opportunity to say they are done with the failed policies of Governor Inslee and the Democrat-controlled Washington legislature? (Click to read full Shift Article)

The former non-voting chair of the Washington State Redistricting Commission wrote in a Seattle Times op-ed that she suddenly resigned last week after the state’s new Democrat Secretary of State and Democrat legislative leaders refused to defend in court the state’s redistricting plan and the public’s voice in the redistricting process.  In the latest sign that Democrats want to remove any voice but their own from the public debate, Democrat Secretary of State Steve Hobbs, Democrat Senate Majority Leader Any Billig, and Democrat House Speaker Laurie Jinkins announced they would not defend the commission’s plan in a court case brought by a wealthy liberal special interest group which seeks to overturn the Redistricting Commission’s public process.

Former Commission Chair Sarah Augustine said the actions by the Democrat leaders “undermines the values that drive the redistricting process in Washington state: Independence from political influence, collaboration and bipartisan compromise.”

This is yet another action by the Democrats in Washington to remove the public’s voice from the political process. From failing to end Governor Inslee’s one-man rule of the state, to prohibiting voters from repealing by referendum the state income tax on capital gains, to using COVID as an excuse to prevent citizens from visiting the state capitol grounds during the session (while allowing 17,000 fans to gather indoors to watch hockey or rock concerts), attempting to eliminate odd-numbered year initiatives and referendums, to even attempting to remove advisory votes from ballots, the Democrats have again demonstrated their complete disregard for the public voice in favor of giving a louder voice for their wealthy friends.

One has to wonder, if similar circumstances confronted former Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman (that is a conservative special interest group filed a lawsuit to challenge the redistricting process) if she would have defended the democratic process and the public voice? Our guess is (based on her actions) she would have chosen the democratic process over partisan politics.  Unfortunately, our new Democrat Secretary of State Steve Hobbs just demonstrated he believes partisan politics is more valuable by refusing to defend the state’s redistricting process.  Thus our state’s administration of elections (at least until Mr. Hobbs must stand for election this fall) is firmly in the control of the Washington State Democrat Party. (Seattle Times)

The Director of Washington Asians for Equality wrote that the “Chinese American community is deeply insulted” over House Democrat leadership’s failure to find time to pass legislation which would have designated January as Chinese American History Month, but did have time to pass a bill designating Pickleball as the state’s sport.  The bill (SB 5264) recognizing Chinese American contributions was unanimously passed by the Senate early in the 2022 legislative session. Yet Democrat House Speaker Laurie Jinkins did not feel it was worth a few moments time to allow House members to vote on the bill. Director Linda Yang wrote in her (Tacoma) News Tribune op-ed, “House Democratic leadership failed the Chinese American community, failed our schools and our students. We deserve an answer and closure. There must be accountability.” Sadly for Yang, as Shift has repeatedly shown, Democrats no longer believe they accountable to anyone except the wealthy liberal special interest groups which fund their campaigns. (News Tribune and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Kris Johnson of the Association of Washington Business asserts legislators had “a unique opportunity for real tax relief” but failed to do so.  In a column for the Tri-Cities Business News, Johnson stated that the $15 billion in surplus funds gave Democrats the opportunity to lower taxes on Washington residents and businesses.  While Republicans offered several bills which would lower the sales tax, property tax, and B&O tax on small employers, Democrats chose to ignore the opportunity to only spend the money on projects which will permanently make state government larger and more expensive.  Johnson writes, “It’s hard to imagine a better opportunity ahead than we had this legislative session to give something back to taxpayers and to be champions for the economy. Lawmakers had a chance to be champions for the economy. The opportunity was right in front of them, but unfortunately, they let it pass.” (Tri-Cities Business News)

KTTH’s Jason Rantz reports that the media’s failure to include an assailant’s race, or that he was homeless in a recent horrific crime, reveals how “woke” bias impacted the ability to locate the suspect and to provide necessary information in the public debate on homelessness and public safety.  On March 2^nd, a 62-year-old woman was brutally attacked as she departed Union Station.  She was repeatedly dragged and thrown down flights of stairs before the attack bolted from the scene.  The Seattle Times failed to say the assailant was Black despite a Seattle Police Department blotter post stating the suspect’s race as they sought the public’s assistance in locating him.  After the suspect was arrested, KIRO-TV failed to mention he was homeless. This omission coming at a time when the public is debating both homelessness and public safety and how the two issues are interrelated. (MyNorthwest, Seattle Times, SPD Blotter, and KIRO-TV)

As liberal public safety policies continue to negatively impact Downtown Seattle, yet another major employer has chosen to keep its workers away from the neighborhood due to public safety concerns. Amazon decided to temporarily relocate 1,800 workers from its 3^rd Avenue and Pine Street office space to other locations or allowed employees to work from home because of the on-going violence.  That is 1,800 more people who aren’t helping out downtown businesses by buying supplies, meals, and entertainment, because of failed liberal public safety policies. (KOMO News)

Representative Tom Dent (R – Moses Lake) said that after the agriculture community came together to stop Governor Inslee’s latest attack on the state’s agriculture community with his buffer bill, a new coalition formed that seeks to provide responsible legislation to help the salmon population.  Representative Dent said that after Governor Inslee’s devastating HB 1838 was killed, a group of stakeholders got together to discuss the issue of salmon recovery.  “I walked out of that meeting with a real sense of optimism because people were serious.” Representative Dent said one of the reason why he was optimistic is that while Governor Inslee only worked with urban environmental groups to develop his failed plan, this new coalition “realized they couldn’t do it that way, and we need to include everybody.” (Pacific Northwest AG Network)

The Spokane County Sheriff’s Office has increased its “signing bonuses” for experienced officers from $15,000 to $25,000.  Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich said the increase was needed to make sure his department attracted the best officers to his department.  Sheriff Knezovich said he continues to focus his recruitment activities in communities like Seattle, Portland, Denver, and Austin, Texas, where liberal public officials hadn’t been supportive of their police officers. (Spokesman-Review)

Shift’s Newsmaker Interview was with Washington State Representative Drew MacEwen (R – Union), the five-term legislator who yesterday after Sine Die announced he will be running to replace the retiring Senator Tim Sheldon in the 35^th Legislative District.  Representative MacEwen is part of the GOP Caucus leadership team and has become an expert on state budget matters as a member of the House Appropriations Committee.  We spoke with the representative earlier this week as the 2022 legislative session was ending and he shared his thoughts on the Democrats’ recklessly spending nearly all of the state’s $14 billion surplus and the Democrats’ failure to provide “fixes” for either their disastrous Long-Term Care payroll tax or their hastily developed “police reform” package which resulted in skyrocketing crime rates throughout the state. Representative MacEwen pulls no punches when he describes the Democrats’ refusal to pass emergency powers reform, calling it “an utter breakdown in a republic form of government.” (Click to read full Newsmaker Interview)

Like a 19^th Century snake oil salesman in the Old West, Governor Jay Inslee continues to peddle his false notion that only he can save us as he (along with his complicit legislative Democrats) refuse to end his unprecedented 741 days (and counting) abuse of the state’s emergency powers.  One day Governor Inslee says his (fake) “science” indicates that state residents must continue to wear masks for another month.  Then the Centers for Disease Control says the (real) science shows that the entire country can immediately stop wearing masks.  So like any snake oil salesman who gets tripped up by the facts, Governor Inslee became flustered and then changed his story for why he continues his undemocratic and divisive one-man rule, by making the totally ridiculous statement that Republicans want to end his emergency orders because “They just want to follow Donald Trump.”  In the Old West this is where the scam artist begins to lose his crowd as they laugh and walk away. For Governor Inslee, it appears this will likely happen to his party’s legislative candidates in November. (Click to read full Shift Article)

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