Commentator Brandi Kruse lambasted the Pierce County Democrat legislators who have finally recognized the merits of placing legislative limits on the governor’s “emergency” powers, but only after Governor Jay Inslee treated their own constituents unfairly.  Pierce County employers, workers, and consumers are currently suffering the consequences of their own elected Democrat lawmakers bowing to the demands of their party bosses.  For the past nine months, Republicans have argued that the state’s executive branch should not hold endless power without legislative oversight, and that the elected members of the legislature need to participate in the process, as is the case in nearly every other state.  Unfortunately, during the recent 105-day legislative session, nearly all Democrat lawmakers refused Republican efforts to even debate the issue. It is only after Governor Inslee’s unfair treatment of Pierce County (relegating it back to Phase 2 in his “re-opening” plan, while keeping liberal King County in Phase 3 despite having nearly identical COVID-19 rates) that Tacoma area Democrats have become concerned about the unrestrained power of the governor.

Eight Democrat Pierce County legislators (all the members of the county’s Democrat caucus except Speaker Laurie Jinkins, who evidently believes she is above representing her 27^th Legislative District constituents), joined by four of their Republican colleagues, signed a letter to the governor threatening to call for a special session to reign in his “emergency” powers.  Kruse pointed out that the Democrat legislators could have avoided this unfair treatment of their constituents if they had joined previous Republican efforts to curb the governor’s powers. “The fact that some Democrats ignored those ample warnings until it negatively impacted their own constituents, well, that should serve as a lesson.  Unfortunately, it is a lesson the people of Pierce County will bear the brunt of.” (Q13’s The Divide, Maine Policy Institute, Shift, and letter from Pierce County legislators)

Only Washington State and Hawaii don’t have plans for when their economies will reopen. Even California has announced plans for a June 15^th resumption of nearly all activities.  The CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association (WHA) expressed frustration over Governor Inslee’s lack of concern for the planning needs of businesses, which continue to unnecessarily suffer under his random and unscientific decisions.  WHA’s Anthony Anton said these companies need a date for when they can rehire people and re-supply their inventory.  “If we reopened on June 15, that’s a set date,” Anton said. “It’s a date that we can start planning for all the things we’ve missed. If we set a date, high schools and families can start making plans. People can start planning for travel around our state.” (MyNorthwest)

The Everett Herald finally got around to mentioning the April 13^th report from the Washington State Auditor’s investigation into the disastrous management practices of Governor Inslee’s Employment Security Department (ESD), which resulted in $1.1 billion being stolen or lost by Inslee’s appointees.  The article recounts several of the well-known horror stories from the dysfunctional ESD – more than $600 million stolen and hundreds of million more left unaccounted for, unanswered phones, thousands waiting months for first payment, recipients being erroneously informed that they must return payments, etc.  The story mentions that the Democrat-controlled legislature spent just over an hour reviewing the report, and that Governor Inslee’s acting ESD Commissioner did not even think it was worth her time to attend, so  sent her media mouthpiece to respond (virtually) to numerous questions from legislators.  Yet there were two significant items left out of the Herald’s report. 1) Why didn’t the Democrat-controlled legislature hold its own investigation into one of the largest mismanagements of taxpayer funds in American history? Isn’t losing $1.1 billion of taxpayer money worth more than 90 minutes of the legislators’ time? 2) Why isn’t the person in charge of this whole fiasco, Governor Jay Inslee, mentioned even once in the 1,500+ word Herald article?  Isn’t the governor the person the taxpayers should hold accountable for such a dramatic failure of state government, especially since he appointed a Democrat political fundraiser (Suzi LeVine) with no practical experience to lead the department? (Everett Herald and TVW)

After months of denying charges of using city resources and employees to illegally promote a ballot measure (and using city-funded attorneys to argue her defense), Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant finally admitted that she had committed the offense and has agreed to pay a $3,516 fine. This was one of the three charges filed (along with illegally allowing protestors into a locked Seattle City Hall and leading protestors to the confidential address of Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan) by the Recall Sawant campaign against the Socialist councilmember, which the Washington State Supreme Court found to be “legally sufficient” to move forward with the recall  Councilmember Sawant’s admission of guilt came as part of a settlement agreement between her and the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission last Friday.  Former U.S. Attorney John McKay, who represented the Recall Sawant campaign in its petition, stated that it was “remarkable” and “unprecedented” for an official to admit to a charge which the State Supreme Court found to be sufficient for a recall effort.  Councilmember Sawant refused to return media calls about her admission of guilt, in what might have been the first time she has not tried to generate publicity for herself.  (Seattle Times and Recall Sawant campaign)

Because of Governor Inslee’s unfair treatment of Pierce County, local restaurants absorbed huge financial losses on what would have been a busy Mother’s Day.  We all know the governor imposed severe restrictions on the more conservative Pierce County, by forcing it into Phase 2 of his nonsensical “re-opening plan”, then he allowed other counties (including the bordering and much more liberal counties of King and Thurston) with nearly identical COVID-19 rate numbers to “pause” in Phase 3. The President of the Gig Harbor Chamber of Commerce, whose restaurant members likely saw potential customers go to nearby Kitsap County establishments, was upset with the governor’s political (not “science-based”) decisions.  President Warren Zimmerman said, “The part that seemed to be so unfair is, they were given a pass, basically. And we weren’t given that same consideration when it was us that were exceeding the limits.” (KING5 News)

As is the case with every major government-involved construction project, the renovation costs of Seattle Center’s “Climate Pledge Arena” have nearly doubled from the original figure announced just four years ago.  In the Spring of 2017, Seattle city officials put the price tag for remodeling the future home of the NHL Kraken and WNBA Storm at $600 million. This morning it was announced that the current figure is $1.15 billion. Anyone want to bet it will go higher before it actually opens? (Seattle Times)

As the city and state Democrat officials continue to remain silent about the political violence committed by liberal activists, more damage was committed against buildings which could threaten the safety of those inside.  City crews last week took down most of the concrete barriers surrounding the Seattle Police Department’s East Precinct headquarters. Late on Thursday night, a group of protestors pushed a heavy garbage dumpster down a steep exit ramp which disabled an exit door from the building’s underground garage, eliminating an exit route for police officers inside. Just like when rioters tried to seal a door with cement to trap officers in a building they were trying to set on fire.  (KOMO News and (MyNorthwest)

As more families are becoming dissatisfied with the quality of education from the state’s public school system, more are enrolling their students in online schools.  The Richland School District announced that it will offer online education programs to any student in the state beginning next fall.  The program grew this past year due to various frustrations parents had over the state being unprepared for the distance learning, and currently has approximately 500 students enrolled.  The program, renamed the Pacific Crest Online Academy, will next year become the 15^th different online school available to any Washington State student.  All are public schools (i.e., no tuition required, and with supplies provided), taught by certified teachers, and most require assistance from a parent. (YakTriNews, Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, and Pacific Crest Online Academy)

Last Friday’s Newsmaker Interview was with Pam Lewison, the Director of the Washington Policy Center’s Initiative on Agriculture.  Director Lewison is an Eastern Washington farmer with first-hand experience in how political decisions impact those who grow our food, and provides a perspective often unheard by policymakers.  The Democrat-controlled 2021 legislative session was extremely expensive for our state’s agricultural community, with many of the Democrats’ new laws placing our state’s farmers at a serious competitive disadvantage since they market their products to both domestic and international consumers.  Lewison explains how the pay for farm workers will actually decrease because of the Democrats’ efforts to please union bosses with their radical changes to an agriculture-worker overtime bill.  Governor Jay Inslee’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard and Cap-and-Trade schemes will significantly raise production and transportation cost for our farmers (while providing almost no environmental benefit for future generations). Even the unconstitutional state income tax on capital gains will increase the cost of farming in Washington State, and make it harder to keep family farms in the family.  Lewison also defines the urban liberal myth that farmers do not care about the welfare of workers as “simply ridiculous.” (Click to read the full Newsmaker Interview)

Will Governor Jay Inslee’s unequal treatment of Pierce County finally force Democrat legislators to join Republican lawmakers in bringing an end to the governor’s undemocratic one-man rule of the state?  For 450 days, Democrat legislators have allowed Governor Inslee to rule over the state without legislative oversight, mainly because his partisan “emergency” actions benefited them as well.  Yet, now that a handful of Tacoma-area Democrat legislators (including House Speaker Laurie Jinkins) are receiving public pressure thanks to Governor Inslee’s unequal treatment of their constituents, they have sent a letter (without Jinkins, because evidently she is now above representing her constituents) threatening to join Republicans in calling for a special session to (finally) place legislative oversight on the governor’s “emergency” powers.  (Click to read full Shift Article)

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