A complete denial of the facts of our state’s revenue picture and eliminating citizens’ rights are the key aspects of the Democrats’ attempt to impose a state income tax on capital gains.  The Democrats have to go to these incredible lengths in order to open up a new income tax revenue stream to help fund Jay Inslee’s dream of a larger and more intrusive state government through the passage of SB 5096.  At a time when Washington State revenue last year was already projected to increase by 7% over the next two years, and with this number is expected to grow substantially thanks to increased tax collections being reported in the March 17^th state financial forecast, and with another federal bailout will increase revenues by an additional 7.5% (expected to be $4.2 billion), the Democrats’ House Finance Committee Chair still arrogantly believes “Now is the exact right time” to impose an unnecessary (and unconstitutional) state income tax on capital gains.  So, while the state is flush with cash, Representative Noel Frame (D – Seattle) believes we need to impose a new tax, that is unconstitutional, will be challenged in court, and will need the all-Democrat Washington State Supreme Court to overturn decades of previous court decisions (and 10 previous statewide votes) in order to be implemented.  And, the Democrats have included a phony “emergency” clause into the bill to prohibit voters from overturning the legislation through a referendum.  Thus, if lawmakers need to ignore basic revenue facts, eliminate citizens’ constitutional rights, and is dependent on the State Supreme Court reversing longstanding constitutional precedents in order to enact this tax, is the tax really justified? (Everett Herald/Cornfield Report and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

There are many who believe Democrat lawmakers are rushing their state income tax on capital gains bill through the legislature before the March 17^th state revenue forecast numbers are released. This is due to the belief that new financial figures will provide even more evidence that new taxes are not required to balance the state’s budget.  This afternoon we hear that there may be a vote in the Senate this Friday or Saturday on SB 5096.  The full Senate is where previous state income tax on capital gains bills have died. (Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Republican House Leader JT Wilcox posted an interesting message on Facebook, regarding the irresponsible behavior of legislative Democrats for refusing to even consider reforming the governor’s emergency powers.  Wilcox wrote, “Democratic and Republican Legislators alike should be deeply concerned that the Legislature is likely to adjourn without any prospect of the Governor laying down his emergency powers. The wide-ranging impact of his proclamations make them complicated to unwind. Do Democratic leaders who control the Legislative agenda really contemplate an adjournment that leaves the Governor once again wielding emergency powers with no end in sight after more than a year?” (Facebook)

Now that the fight over Governor Jay Inslee’s costly and ineffective Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS) moves to the State Senate, we wanted to provide a couple of items from the debate in the House chamber last Saturday that Democrats were hoping you’d miss.  First, the GOP caucus received significant social media attention with an informative  graphic on the LCFS it posted on Facebook.  Also, the caucus has released a four-and-a-half-minute video with some of highlights from the virtual debate which took place on Saturday.  Both are helpful for those seeking to learn more about LCFS and the disastrous impact it will have on Washington State’s economy, and how it will hurt low-income workers the most. (Facebook and House Republican Caucus/YouTube)

Our friend Todd Myers from the Washington Policy Center has published an interesting article about how the use of personal technology can be an effective tool in solving many environmental problems.  In his column for PERC, Myers writes, “While political solutions to big environmental problems are frustratingly slow and, often, ineffective, the power of people unified in purpose, connected by information, and empowered by technology is a source of environmental optimism.” (PERC)

Washington State’s prospective home buyers continue to be forced out of the housing market.  As Shift highlighted in a recent article, Democrat legislators keep seeking to impose more home construction regulations through the Growth Management Act (GMA).  These regulations obviously increase home construction costs, making it more expensive to buy homes.  A recent survey conducted by the National Association of Home Builders (NAHB) shows that Washington State’s average  new home price is $522,023 (6^th highest in the country). This price average means that 72% of state households could not afford an average-cost new home.  What is interesting is to look at the study’s “Metro Area” chart.  These figures reveal Eastern Washington home buyers have a more difficult time buying a new home than those in the Puget Sound area.  While 59% of households in the Seattle/Tacoma/Bellevue market cannot afford a new home, 76% cannot in Spokane, in Walla Walla the percentage is 78%, and in Yakima it is 80%.  So, when Seattle-area Democrat legislators add to the cost of new homes with more unnecessary GMA regulations, they demonstrate that they are apathetic to the struggle Eastern Washington prospective home buyers already face.  We should note that the purpose of NAHB’s survey is to show how many households are priced out of the new home market with every $1,000 being added due to regulations.  (NAHB State Survey, Shift Article, and NAHB Metro Area Survey)

It only took 60 calls to 911, an attempted murder of a police officer, 10 arson attempts, five calls for domestic abuse, four assaults, and three sex offenses since November, for the City of Seattle to finally start ridding Denny Park of its illegal homeless encampment. The historic park – the city’s oldest – had become the latest symbol of the failed liberal homeless policies which have dramatically changed Seattle. A once beautiful and caring community has gone from being the nation’s “Most Livable City” to one where nearly every park, and many sidewalks, have been taken over by tarps,  tents and broken-down vehicles housing people living in very cruel circumstances. And all of this is due to the misguided liberal policies emanating from Seattle City Hall.  It is interesting that a group which opposes cleaning up these encampments released a statement relies on an incredibly false narrative to promote their failed liberal vision.  King County Equity Now (i.e. the enablers of those leading destructive and unfortunate lives on the streets) states “In a society that does not allow for upward social or economic mobility…” Sounds like these folks have spent too much time listening to Socialist City Councilmember Kshama Sawant’s rhetoric, instead of living in reality, for our community (like nearly all American communities) has hundreds of thousands of examples of people who have improved their “economic mobility.” (Seattle Times)

KTTH host Jason Rantz takes on the Seattle activists’ distorted belief that helmet laws are racist.  Leftist bicycle clubs (which have already been successful in causing more congestion on Seattle streets by reducing automobile traffic lanes) have picked up on the liberals’ “argument du jour” by claiming that police enforcement actions on helmet laws are racist and that it is not “equitable” because some people cannot afford bicycle helmets (a quick check on ebay found thousands under $15). One of the key problems Rantz has with the racist argument is that so few tickets (less than 130 a year) are issued and that the study focused on just one year. (MyNorthwest and ebay)

The Washington State Supreme Court’s recent decision to strike down drug possession laws has forced Benton and Chelan sheriffs to stop arresting people for unlawful possession of illegal drugs. The court struck down the state’s drug possession laws because they do not require prosecutors to prove that defendant’s knowingly possessed the drugs, and not just found them in their pockets. (Wenatchee World)

The Walla Walla School District will be one of a very few Washington State districts to deploy rapid COVID-19 tests on campus.  The district was selected by the Washington State Department of Health to participate in the program, where students and staff will know within 15 minutes if they have tested positive for the virus. (Walla Walla Union Bulletin)

We have all seen this many times before, right?  Governor Jay Inslee and Democrat legislators are claiming that their proposed unconstitutional income tax on capital gains will only impact the “mega-rich.”  Following the typical Democrat playbook, you can bet that if successful, in a few years, Democrats will remove the exemptions, and reduce the minimum caps, and soon we will have a full-fledged state income tax that will impact everyone here who earns a paycheck.  Why are Jay Inslee and the Democrats doing this? They need a new revenue stream to help them make state government larger and more powerful, to benefit friends like their major campaign contributors in the public employee unions. (Click to read full Shift article)

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