The local media has blindly accepted the Democrat legislators’ spin of calling its capital gains tax an “excise tax,” and not identifying it as an “income tax” as the IRS, 49 other states, and the rest of mankind do. The Democrats know this is a particularly important distinction, since an “income tax” is unconstitutional in Washington State and an “excise tax” is not.  The legislation (SB 5096) was sneaked through the Senate , by a single vote, in a rare Saturday session, and will likely sail through the Democrat-controlled House.  Just as certain as Governor Jay Inslee signing any bill that raises taxes, there will certainly be a lawsuit which will eventually require the Washington State Supreme Court to rule on whether or not Inslee’s income tax on capital gains is an unconstitutional income tax.  By the local media choosing to ignore the IRS, 49 other states, and common sense that this is an “income tax” and choosing instead to support the Democrats’ false script that it is an “excise tax,” the “watchdogs” have clearly taken sides on the issue and are helping build the Democrats’ defense in a future court case. (Click to read full Shift Article)

Play in Shift’s “Madness in Olympia” contest before Wednesday, as you determine which of the many bad proposals the Democrats have made this year deserves to be crowned 2021’s Worst Idea.  In a tournament format, we have included our top eight contenders.  Each week we will ask our readers to vote on the worst ideas. We have two brackets, one for “More Taxes” and one for “Less Public Safety,”, which have turned out to be the top two Democrat priorities for this session, Share it with your friends. (Shift’s Madness in Olympia)

Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center has put forth an interesting wrinkle in the Democrats’ push to impose an unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains.  One of the few amendments which Democrats accepted into the final bill (SB 5096) removed the insulting “emergency clause”, which would have eliminated Washington State citizens’ right to repeal the legislation through a referendum.  As it has been repeatedly pointed out by Republican legislators, since the first tax collection of revenue from the new tax will not occur for another two years, the “emergency” the clause referred to, aiding those impacting by COVID-19 restrictions, will have passed.  Thus, there is no actual emergency, the Democrats simply wanted to deny Washington State voters the right to repeal.

Mercier states that there are “whispers that the House may add the emergency clause back to the bill.” If this is done, it will require the Senate to revote on the legislation.  The Senate approved the income tax bill by just one vote.  Thus, if the emergency clause is reinserted into the bill, will this cause one of the Democrats who initially supported the bill to flip their vote, and vote “No” when it returns to the Senate?  (Washington Policy Center,  Washington Legislature Bill Summary, and Roll Call Vote)

Senate Republican Leader John Braun and House Republican Leader JT Wilcox sent a letter to Governor Jay Inslee to encourage him to listen to the advice of local health officials and allow Washington State’s small retailers and restaurants to safely advance to 50% capacity.  The Republican leaders pointed out that the governor had previously stated he likely will not be making any changes to his unscientific “recovery plan” until April, and many small employers may not be able to wait that long.  If the past is any indicator, the governor will continue to selfishly ignore the advice and suggestions of local health officials and Republicans, and instead continue his one-man rule, possibly because even he knows that he is such a poor leader that he is unable to convince others to follow his direction on the proper actions. (Braun/Wilcox Letter to Governor Inslee, Yakima Herald, and Shift)

The Washington State Labor Council (WSLC) is now labeling Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal as racist, in a bizarre thought process to retroactively punish Washington State farmers who obeyed the law.  On the group’s blog site, the state labor council blames the former hero of American liberals and his Depression-era policies for the lack of collective bargaining among current farm workers.  The WSLC contends the New Deal is part “of our racist past.”  And for this bizarre reason, labor is encouraging legislators to kill SB 5172, which aims to protect law-abiding farmers who are currently being sued to pay retroactive overtime wages based on a recent Washington State Supreme Court ruling.  Currently, activists want to hold farmers responsible for three years of retroactive overtime pay, even though the employers were paying the workers the legally approved wage.  The court’s ruling is similar to telling parents that they are now forced to retroactively pay babysitters $15 hour for the previous three years, when they had previously legally agreed to pay $10 an hour.  If SB 5172 is not passed, then many family farms will be forced to close and the price of local farm products will dramatically increase. (The Stand, Washington Legislature Bill Summary, Seattle Eater, and Save Family Farms)

Seattle teachers may have finally realized that it does not make them look good to be keeping special education students from receiving an education.  The union finally came to an agreement with the Seattle Public Schools to return to in-person instruction for a limited number of students.  Starting on March 29^th, students in the district’s Intensive Service Pathways program, and preschool students, will be allowed to return to the classroom.  All is not positive, of course, as the Seattle Education Association union bosses have continued to keep Kindergarten and 1^st grade students from returning to classrooms, despite scientific data and thousands of local, state, and national health officials saying this can be done safely.  (Seattle Times)

As the election to replace lame duck Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan continues, most Seattle “insiders” believe current City Council President Lorena Gonzalez will be one of the two candidates to make it through the primary, and thus will appear on the general election ballot in November.  Seattle blog Publicola states that poll questions are being posed to Seattle voters to test what effective messaging works best against Gonzalez.  As might be expected, given Councilwoman Gonzalez’s active involvement in most of the city’s failed policies during her time, these messages appear to be focused on defunding police, failure to address the growing homeless problem, and the decaying state of downtown Seattle. Her lack of achievements on the council meant much fewer questions on such topics. (PublicCola)

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn said that the hazard pay measures for grocery workers which were first passed by the City of Seattle, and are now being considered by the county council, are a direct assault on the free market.  Dunn said, “It’s not even an invisible hand of government anymore. It’s the direct fist of government saying the private sector shall do X, Y, and Z.”  We should note for the liberals who wish to impose these higher wages and costs on grocery stores, that they are indirectly helping Amazon founder Jeff Bezos make even more millions. As groceries stores need to charge more for products, to cover the costs added by liberal government, delivery services like Amazon Fresh become more attractive to consumers. (MyNorthwest)

Spokane County Sheriff Ozzie Knezovich and Spokane Police Chief Craig Meidl held a joint news conference to express their concerns over the significant increase in gang violence in the region.  The law enforcement officials also pointed to a new harsher mentality among young people now involved in gangs.  Sheriff Knezovich stated, “These kids have no concept of empathy. They will kill you in a heartbeat.” The sheriff went on to say that many of these kids do not care if they die, or if they kill someone.  The Spokane Police Department has recorded four times as many shootings and drive-by shootings in 2021, compared to this time last year. (Spokesman-Review)

The Douglas County Public Utility District broke ground on a new renewable hydrogen production facility north of Wenatchee, on the Columbia River.  The facility will use unused energy from a nearby dam to split water molecules into oxygen and hydrogen. It is extremely similar to the process that extracts hydrogen from natural gas, except proponents say it is a “green” process, for it does not produce greenhouse gases.  Meanwhile, Senator Brad Hawkins (R – East Wenatchee) bill (SB 5000) to provide a sales tax break to buyers of hydrogen-fueled vehicles was passed unanimously in the state senate. (Northwest Public Broadcasting and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

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