The Washington State Department of Revenue responded to the cease and desist letter it received from the Citizen Action Defense Fund (CADF) which argued the department must stop its rulemaking and developing revenue collection procedures for the state income tax on capital gains which a Douglas County Superior Court ruled was unconstitutional. The DOR wrote, “The Department has not taken any actions to enforce the capital gains tax. Rather, it simply is taking reasonable steps to be prepared to administer the capital gains tax if the Washington Supreme Court reverses the superior court and upholds the tax’s constitutionality.”

The CADF responded to this by stating, “If the Department is planning to wait, why does its website say the final rule will be adopted later this year? Why does the proposed rule say the tax is due April 17 of next year? Why is DOR asking for money to upgrade its computers to collect the tax in 2023?  None of this makes sense if the proposed rule is just guidance.”

The CADF filed a petition with the Joint Administrative Rules Review Committee (JARRC) of the Washington Legislature challenging the statutory authority of DOR to proceed in rulemaking on a state law the courts have ruled unconstitutional. The petition also noted that Attorney General Bob Ferguson did not ask the courts to allow the state to continue to make rules on the illegal tax.  (Citizen Action Defense Fund media release and Washington Policy Center)

The two sides in the debate over the impact of the Democrats’ Cap and Trade bill (the so-called Climate Commitment Act, SB 5126) vary greatly over how much the legislation will impact fuel prices.  Those who are opposed to SB 5126 cite a recent study by the Washington Research Council which determined that gas prices would increase 46 cents per gallon beginning next year thanks to the cap and tax measure. Yet supporters of the controversial legislation, like Democrat Senator Jamie Pedersen (who co-sponsored the bill), provide no supporting research to back his belief that consumers won’t even notice a change at the gas pump since it will only increase gas prices “in the 2-3 cents per gallon range.”  (KXLY News and Washington Research Council report)

More states are investigating nuclear energy as a future clean energy source according to a story in Pluribus News.  10 states passed legislation during their 2022 legislative sessions to move towards developing new nuclear energy sites, mostly with a small modular reactor (SMR) which typically has the power capacity of 300 megawatts per unit, or about one-third the generating capacity of traditional nuclear power plants. Some environmental groups such as Greenpeace continue to protest nuclear facilities despite the fact they are a constant and reliable source of zero-emission energy. While these environmental groups maintain that we can rely on wind and solar energy in the future, everyone understands that those energy-generating methods are intermittent unreliable sources of power and nuclear is a dependable and constant source that needs to be part of our future energy mix. (Pluribus News)

Controversial Socialist Seattle City Councilmember Kshama Sawant has informed the media of her belief the police are not doing enough to investigate numerous harassment incidents at her home, while the Seattle Police Department maintains officers have taken the attacks seriously and have done due diligence in conducting an investigation. Councilmember Sawant claims that six times someone has thrown bags of human excrement into her yard. She believes this is politically motivated and is a hate crime.  Police say  the incidents have not met “city or state standards for hate crimes.”  Councilmember Sawant has consistently sided with those who have pushed radical defund the police policies in Seattle, which has led to a mass exodus of over 400 well-trained officers and a severely short-staffed police department. This has resulted in longer emergency response times from police and the inability to follow up on many non-emergency calls. (Seattle Times)

The Asian Weekly ran an open letter to Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell and Seattle Police Chief Adrian Diaz from the International Community Health Services (ICHS) President and CEO demanding the city provide improvements in public safety in the Chinatown-International District (CID).  President Teresita Batayola related several violent criminal incidents which occurred outside ICHS facilities or to ICHS staff and patients where the police did not respond or stated that there would not be additional police follow-up. Batayola stated there is a growing skepticism that the Seattle Police Department can keep the CID safe and that her staff members say “they don’t find it helpful to call 911.” (Asian Weekly)

Starbucks stated that safety concerns for its employees and customers led to its decision to close its Stadium District location just north of Downtown Tacoma. Similar to recent closures in Seattle and Spokane, the Seattle-based coffee retailer said there were several considerations in determining to close the location but “safety and security of both partners and customers was a factor in deciding to close the store,” and that ““Our first priority is to make sure our partners are safe at work.” Unfortunately this is one of many recent closures of small retailers in the Stadium District neighborhood. (News Tribune, Seattle Times, and KHQ TV)

Rural Pierce and Thurston county residents and political leaders are organizing to fight any proposals to build a second regional airport in their communities.  The Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission (CACC) is currently considering two options. The first is to expand Paine Field in Everett, which already has provides limited passenger service. The second is to build a new two-runway airport in one of two rural Pierce County locations or in rural Thurston County.  The legislature created the CACC in 2019, tasking it with providing a recommendation by June 2023 on where a second airport should be built.  Residents in rural Thurston and Pierce counties said they were surprised that their property could soon be near a regional airport.  At recent meetings, opponents of the new airport expressed concerns about loss of farmlands and endangerment of wildlife, and the lack of infrastructure to accommodate a major regional airport. (Q13 Fox News and Commercial Aviation Coordinating Commission)

The Kent City Council unanimously passed a measure to ban camping along the Green River, in trails, in parks, and in greenspaces.  Police said they needed this language added to the city’s 2000 measure which dealt with camping on public property and stated there has never been a time when the city did not have shelter available for those who needed it. The problem is that many people “never take shelter” when it is offered to them. Police believe that this measure will give them “leverage” to get a homeless person the assistance they need. (KUOW/NPR)

The Capital Press posted an editorial which criticized the attorneys for wolf advocates who “put too much faith in non-lethal deterrents used to keep wolves away from cattle.”  The editorial stated that cattle ranchers nearly always attempt several different non-lethal methods to protect their livestock, but still some wolves are relentless in their pursuit of cattle (especially younger calves).  The editorial had fun at the attorneys expense  for suggesting that young cattle should be left behind when grown cattle graze since some wolves like to prey on calves. The editorial stated that “Ranchers who graze only adult cows without calves would have a short career,” for it is grazing food alongside their mothers which allows calves to grow. (Capital Press)

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