Washington State Democrat lawmakers are all alone in the country with their actions, even among Democrats in other states.  1) The IRS and 49 other states categorize a capital gains tax as a tax on income. Yet, because an income tax is unconstitutional in Washington State, Washington Democrats are all alone in the country in mislabeling it as an “excise” tax. 2) State legislatures across the country (even those controlled by Democrats) were placing time limits on the use of emergency powers, yet Democrats in the Washington legislature only introduce a fake reform bill (which they failed to pass) as Governor Inslee is now on Day 809 of abusing emergency orders. 3) Nearly all other states which received a tax revenue surplus during the past year decided to provide tax relief for their citizens. Yet when Democrats in Washington were given the chance to help lower- and middle- income households with a tax break during these inflationary times, they greedily decided to spend nearly all of the surplus money to make Washington State government permanently larger and more expensive. Washington Democrats are not only out of step with Washington residents, but they are also more extreme then their Democrat counterparts in other states. (Click to read full Shift article)

It appears there will be a very interesting race for those interested in serving the last two years of the current term of Washington’s Secretary of State.  Former Republican Secretary of State Kim Wyman resigned from the post in 2021 to oversee election security in the federal Homeland Security Office. Governor Jay Inslee immediately appointed former Democrat state Senator Steve Hobbs to the position, not because of his qualifications for the job, but to remove Hobbs’ “moderate” vote in the state Senate which was hampering the governor’s far-Left environmental and higher taxes agenda.

Filing for the 2022 elections is currently taking place and some interesting developments have occurred. As expected, Secretary Hobbs has filed as a Democrat in the race.  Republican Senator Keith Wagoner (Sedro Woolley) has followed through on his previous announcement to run for the statewide position. 39^th Legislative District Republican Chair Bob Haglund has also filed. Current Pierce County Auditor Julie Anderson has filed as an Independent. It was announced today that former Republican State Senator Mark Miloscia, who switched parties in 2014 after serving 14 years in the state House as a Democrat, announced that he too will be running for the Secretary of State position. This race will be interesting to watch, especially since only the top two, no matter the party affiliation, will make it past the August primary to compete in the November general election. Filing closes on Friday evening. (Secretary of State Office’s list of filed candidates, Shift, and Jerry Cornfield Twitter)

Governor Inslee has issued 87 emergency orders in the past 809 days, 29 are still active.  The most controversial is the order which mandates all state workers, no matter their work environment, to be fully vaccinated or lose their job.  The governor has issued these “emergency orders” without legislative deliberation or oversite for evidently he does not believe the Democrats who control the legislature are capable of fulfilling their constitutional responsibilities to govern the state.  This again leads to the question, if Governor Inslee does not have faith in the governing abilities of Democrat legislators, then why should the voters?  Washington State is the last remaining state in the country which is still ruled by emergency orders or has yet to set a date for when the orders will end.  Governor Inslee has yet to provide any set of criteria for when he will end his undemocratic abuse of emergency orders. (News Tribune and National Academy for State Health Policy)

Gas prices are again on the rise in Washington State, making it more difficult for households on fixed- or lower- income.  Gas prices jumped dramatically in March after Russia invaded Ukraine.  This was followed by a few weeks of gas prices slightly declining.  This trend reversed this week as AAA reported a 8 cent a gallon increase in Washington to bring the average costs in the state to $4.77 a gallon.  Republican legislators pushed for a temporary elimination or reduction of the state’s 49.4 cent a gallon tax (second highest in the nation) during the 2022 legislative session (SB 5897).  Bill sponsor Senator Simon Sefzik (R – Ferndale) said it would only take $1.3 billion of the state’s nearly $15 billion surplus revenue to implement. Yet the legislature’s Democrat majority chose to ignore the concerns of families who were financially suffering to instead use the surplus money to increase the size of state government even further (so there are more state workers having union dues taken from their paychecks, which are then used to help Democrat political candidates). (Centralia Chronicle/Nisqually News, Shift, and Washington Legislature Bill Summary)

Several Western Washington counties are experiencing an increase in COVID cases, but it is not as widespread as the number of cases associated with the omicron variant at the end of last year. The Centers for Disease Control has rated Clallam and San Juan counties as “high risk,” while Jefferson, King, and Snohomish counties are considered “medium risk.” It is not known if Governor Inslee will again ignore the views of the legislative branch and locally elected officials to impose unscientific facemask restrictions on residents and businesses. (Q13 Fox News)

The Seattle Times editorial board encouraged the Washington State Supreme Court to force a Pierce County Superior Court judge to release audio recordings made in a trial which resulted in King County being forced to pay nearly $12 million (in taxpayer money) to a public defender and her attorneys. The public defender won the lawsuit which involved a stalking client against King County in a jury decision made in the Pierce County Superior Court of Judge Philip Sorensen.  King County seeks to appeal the decision, stating Judge Sorensen biased the jury with his instructions. The county says they need the audio recording, and not just the court reporter’s written transcript, to prove their case.  The judge is refusing to comply for the audio recording was made on a device personally owned by the court reporter. The Times asserts that “Blocking access to them (audio tapes) on a technicality over who paid for the device used casts a troubling shadow over the courts’ idea of openness.” (Seattle Times)

It is likely that Governor Jay Inslee, U.S. Senator Patty Murray, Spokesman-Review columnist Shawn Vestal, and wealthy urban environmental groups are truly upset with the latest Snake River salmon count figures which reveal the salmon numbers have doubled since last year and are well above the 10-year average.  The data comes from the University of Washington’s salmon counts at the Lower Granite dam (“LWG” in the charts) which is the furthest upstream of the four lower Snake River dams, thus the best indicator of the true impact of the dams.

This positive news is occurring just as liberals kick-off a coordinated public relations effort by to push their unscientific narrative that in order to increase the salmon which feed the Puget Sound Orca whales, we must tear down the four Snake River dams.  National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration scientist and others assert that science does not support the liberals’ arguments.  (Todd Myers Twitter, University of Washington Columbia Basin Research, and Tri-Cities Business News

The Everett Herald’s editorial board, which has long been recognized as the Washington State daily newspaper with the most Left-wing opinions in a region full of very liberal newspapers, attempts to convince readers that a union-financed pro-tax group is “non-partisan,” to justify its own belief that Washington workers are not taxed enough.  The newspaper made this claim while ignoring the fact that state government has received record-breaking tax revenues that are more than twice what the state received just nine years ago when Jay Inslee brought his tax-raising obsessions and bigger government views to the governor’s mansion. There appears to be no limit to the amount of taxes that liberal politicians and their special interest supporters seek to squeeze from Washington residents, especially when they know newspapers like the Everett Herald still believe that all of the state’s problems will be solved by a bigger and more powerful government. (Click to read full Shift Article)

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