A trend by lawmakers in other states to provide their constituents with a break on gas taxes will likely never happen in Washington since the Democrats who control the state legislature and Governor Jay Inslee are evidently unconcerned with helping those negatively impacted by skyrocketing fuel prices. National news organizations are beginning to report on a slow but growing movement by governors and legislatures (surprisingly including some Democrats) to temporarily suspend their state’s gas tax to assist lower- and middle- class households, as rising fuel prices are wreaking havoc with family budgets.

The trend began earlier this month in Maryland and Georgia, where Republican governors provided some financial relief to their state’s residents by suspending the gas tax.  Connecticut and Florida soon followed.  Lawmakers in West Virginia, Ohio, and even California are currently discussing doing the same in their states.

Unfortunately in Washington State, recent actions by Democrat state lawmakers provide little hope that the suspending gas tax trend will continue here – and indeed Olympia liberals are more interested in raising gas prices than providing any tax relief.  A bill (SB 5897) introduced by Senator Simon Sefzik (R – Ferndale) sought to suspend the state’s second-highest-in-the-nation 49.4 cents per gallon gas tax, yet it was not even allowed a public hearing by the Democrats in control.

Because Jay Inslee and the Olympia Democrats want you to pay more for gasoline. That’s all.

Washington drivers will continue to pay one of the nation’s highest prices for fuel and will be forced to pay even more at the fuel pump later this year when the cost of Inslee’s special-interest payoff climate measure (his 2021 “cap-and-trade” scam) hits gas stations.

And, while the Democrats’ falsely claim their recently passed $17 billion transportation budget does not contain any new gas tax, they know this is not factually correct. The package relies on significant funding from the taxes generated by the 2021 cap-and-trade law which will raise the cost of gas by an estimated 18 cents a gallon just by the end of this year.  We should also note that the Democrats’ transportation package will raise another $2 billion in fees/taxes by dramatically increasing multiple driving-related fees (drivers licenses, car tabs, etc.) which will also especially negatively impact lower- and middle- income residents. (CBS News/MSN, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, Shift’s Newsmaker Interview, Washington Policy Center, and CenterSquare)

Controversial first-term Senator Mona Das (Kent) has joined the growing ranks of Democrat  legislators who have chosen to quit rather than defend the multiple failed policies they have supported in the legislature.  Senator Das, like nearly all of her Democrat legislative colleagues, supported the Democrats’ disastrous “police reform” package, the unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains, the poorly developed Long-Term Care payroll tax, doubling the size of state government in less than a decade, allowing Governor Inslee to continue to abuse his emergency authority for over 750 days, and not providing tax relief to Washington residents despite $15 billion in surplus tax revenues.

Senator Das made headlines in 2019 when she claimed in a speech before the Kent Chamber that when the Democrat Senate Caucus door closed, “things got real.”  She claimed she “heard hate, misogyny and racism and sexism from people you would not expect.”

Like many of her fellow Democrats who have recently decided to quit, it appears the decision was a recent one (likely after seeing many polls which indicate a Republican surge in 2022). Senator Das had amassed a $175,000 war chest, with nearly all of the large contributions coming from Seattle and outside of the 47^th Legislative District.  Current Auburn City Councilmember Bill Boyce announced last fall that he was a Republican candidate for the senate seat. (Senator Mona Das Facebook, Kent Reporter, Washington State Public Disclosure Commission, and Bill Boyce for Senate)

New small private schools are thriving as parents claim they have lost faith in the state’s public schools.  Across the country, public schools experienced a 3% drop in enrollment, yet Washington State’s public schools experienced a 25% greater departure rate after more than 40,000 students left the system. New private schools have filled the void, including some formed from “learning pods” during the extended period of distance-learning mandated by Governor Inslee.  (Crosscut)

Mike Gallagher was named the CEO and president of the Washington Policy Center.  Gallagher was previously the head of the Washington, D.C.-based Entertainment Software Association, after serving as the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Telecommunications and Information under President George W. Bush.  Gallagher is well-known by many in Washington State from when he was partner in the Perkins Coie law firm and when he served on the staff of former Congressman Rick White (WA-01). (Washington Policy Center media release)

Journalist Brandi Kruse takes on the negative impact of the radical Left’s attacks on local media figures in this strongly recommend read. While Shift would normally attempt to summarize the points made in an article such as this one, we think Kruse’s article should be read in full to best understand the very important points she made.  We will provide this quote from the article, in which Kruse describes the physical violence she personally faced from Left-wing radicals during the 2020 Seattle riots: “Ask yourself this and try to answer honestly: If a reporter were treated in such a manner at a right-wing rally and Republican politicians blamed the reporter for their own attack, would the media have stayed silent? The answer is a resounding no. And that tells you all you need to know.” If you have not done so already, please read this article.  (Brandi Kruse article/Patreon)

Former Democrat Speaker of the House and current State Representative Frank Chopp (Seattle) used a legislative procedure to move more than $2 million in state funds intended for the King County Regional Homelessness Authority (KCRHA) and instead sent the money to a dysfunctional homeless non-profit which he co-founded.  The state recently stopped sending shelter funds directly to homeless nonprofits and instead allocates the money to counties and cities to allow them to decide which projects to support.  Yet after the KCRHA recently announced that it was not going to spend any of the $2,050,000 the state had allocated it on Representative Chopp’s Low-Income Housing Institute (LIHI) – instead sending the money to the Catholic Community Services and the Chief Seattle Club – Representative Chopp used a little known legislative mechanism (“local community project information forms”) to redirect the state funds to his own “non-profit” LIHI.

The LIHI recently made news when its executive director became upset and shut down an interview when she was asked by a reporter about the residents at one of LIHI’s tiny villages repeatedly throwing their garbage onto the private property of a neighbor and how there appeared to be greats amount of clutter (including possibly stolen bicycles) on their property. (Seattle Times and KOMO News)

Whitman County just joined 12 other counties and 15 cities in passing a resolution prohibiting the use of a local income tax. Some 12 of the 13 counties to pass such laws are in Eastern Washington (only Cowlitz County is on the West side of the Cascade mountains, and only three (Battle Ground, Dupont, and Longview) of the 15 cities are from the West side of the state. The legislature considered a bill (SB 5554) which would have allowed local governments to impose a graduated income tax only after they had cut sales or property tax. Fortunately the bill died in committee after the Democrats allowed public hearings. (CenterSquare and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

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.

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