The winner of Shift’s “Madness in Olympia 2022” Tournament is “Doubling the state budget in one decade.”  Thank you to the thousands of Shift readers who participated in our annual contest to decide which of the Democrats’ actions in Olympia was the worst during the legislative session.  We look forward to the time (next year???) when Washington voters decide they want a shift in the direction of the state and we can run a contest to select the “best action” to come out of a legislative session.

The above picture of Governor Jay Inslee’s office in the Legislative Building is much different today than it was during the recently completed 2022 legislative session.  While state lawmakers were deliberating on state policy in nearby Senate and House chambers, this door was closed shut.  But now that the legislators have gone home, the door is open (with hand sanitizer sitting on a pedestal).  Remember, Democrat legislative leaders prohibited members of the public from entering the Capitol Building, thus the only people who were being locked out of the governor’s office were legislators and a very few staff members.

Evidently the governor felt that neither legislators nor his staff members were capable of safely interacting with others the way workers in nearly all other offices in the state had adapted to during Jay Inslee’s two-year-and-going emergency. Consider that while more than 17,000 people were safely attending Seattle Kraken games, not one outside person was allowed in the governor’s office.  But given the poor track record of following safety guidelines by Inslee administration workers who manage state-run hospitals and corrections facilities (all of which have experienced major COVID outbreaks), maybe it is a good thing to keep the governor’s staff behind locked doors. (March 22^nd Photo of Governor Inslee’s Office)

Speaking of the governor, many Facebook users had a hearty chuckle over Governor Inslee’s recent post where he touted the state-run Washington Technology Solutions to protect individuals and small business from cyberattacks. Given the history of the state protecting its own computer systems from cyberattacks, it is not very likely any people will be calling on the Inslee administration to help protect their personal or business computer systems.

As we have mentioned before in the Daily Briefing, many security experts have warned that Vladimir Putin may soon order a major cyberattack against Western computer systems.  It is very likely that Washington State’s systems are near the top of the Russian’s “must hit” list due to the success foreign criminals had in committing one of the most profitable cyber thefts in history when they easily hacked into the system at the Employment Security Department.  Then, after the governor promised he would do everything humanly possible to make sure the state’s computer systems were protected, the personal financial information of Washington residents at the Washington State Department of Licensing’s data system was broken into last month, which allowed hackers to access the personal data of 650,000 Washington residents. (Governor Inslee Facebook post, Washington State Auditor report on ESD fraud scheme, and Seattle Times)

If you are looking to learn more about a rational free-market approach to environmental issues, then we recommend watching this 35-minute interview with Washington Policy Center’s Todd Myers.  Prior to joining WPC, Myers was part of the executive team at the Washington State Department of Natural Resources and is one of the leading critics of Governor Inslee and other liberals’ environmental policies.  As Myers said in the interview, “The Left talks a lot about how much they care about the environment, but their policies don’t work.” He then provides examples of these failures and suggest a better approach using free market principles. (Myers Interview/YouTube)

Port Angeles Chief of Police said the failure of the Democrat-controlled legislature to fix the restrictions placed on police officers to pursuit suspected criminals will lead to even more people refusing to stop for police.  The restrictions were part of the Democrats’ disastrous 2021 “police reform” bill which stated that unless police had probable cause to suspect a violent crime or sexual assault had been committed, they could not pursuit a suspect.  This caused many suspected criminals to escape from police by simply driving away and led to a large increase in the number of incidents where drivers failed to pull over for simple traffic violations.  Democrats had pledged to fix this problem during the just completed 2022 legislative session, but instead they chose to let the bill (SB 5919) die as the session ended.

Port Angeles Police Chief Brian Smith says he just has to wait until the 2023 legislative session to fix this problem. “You know, I think that next session you’re going to have 9 or 10 more months of anecdotal stories and actual data showing the challenges we’re having and that I believe, legislatively something’s going to have to be done to address this.” (MyClallamCounty and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

A new survey reveals that nearly two-thirds of the workers who used to take public transit to downtown Seattle are now working mostly from home.  Prior to the start of the pandemic, nearly a half of all downtown workers commuted via trains or buses.  That figure is now just 18%.  This is a very significant drop in ridership as Sound Transit continues to spend billions on a light rail system which trends indicate will have a much lower demand.   The drop in the number of transit riders corresponds with the significant growth in downtown company employees who now work remotely. Prior to the pandemic only 6% of workers telecommuted. Today that figure is 46%. Most of the reduction comes from employees of larger companies. Smaller companies (those with 10 or fewer employees) have only 20% of their workers telecommuting.  (Seattle Times)

5^th District U.S. Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers will be holding a “telephone town hall” with Eastern Washington parents to discuss concerns with remote learning, COVID mandates, and what is being taught in our children’s classrooms.  The “Conversation with Cathy” will take place Thursday, March 31^st from 6:00 PM – 7:00 PM.  Material for the town hall says, “This live event will serve as a great opportunity for us to discuss how COVID-19 policies are impacting our children’s mental, social, and educational development.” For call-in information, please click on the links. (Congresswoman McMorris Rodgers website)

The Democrats in Washington State have become so comfortable to holding absolute power that they have stopped all pretense of hiding their ambition to eliminate the public’s input when determining public policy.  The noble effort to provide more transparency to the government process by groups like the Washington Coalition for Open Government is needed now more than ever.  Democrat state lawmakers and local liberal elected officials have not been shy in their attempts to remove the public from the political process as they hammer out backroom deals to benefit their campaign donors.  We quickly came up with 10 examples of how the Democrats in just the past couple years have abused their power seeking to find ways to eliminate the public’s voice. This exclusionary mindset from the Democrats comes from being in power too long and a media unwilling to hold liberal officials accountable.  (Click to read full Shift Article)

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