Some Democrats evidently believe that voters are stupid and the media will allow them to repeat unchallenged nonsense. Of course, they are largely right on the second point, as State Representative April Berg found KING TV willing to let her claim the House Democrats’ demand for jacking up the real estate excise tax (REET) in the name of affordable housing is that “(W)e need this because of homelessness.” That’s right. Homelessness is not connected to the legalization of hard drugs. Not related to the rezoning of all public property as camping grounds. Not about decades of liberal policies placing limited-to-no responsibility on the drug user or criminal. It’s because our state’s real estate excise tax (REET), already tied for the highest in the nation, is not by far the highest.

Rep. Berg was spouting her nonsense in response to a more senior Democrat claiming that – with just five days to go in this session – her “needed” REET is dead. But, to find out why nothing is dead until the far-lefties in the state house say they are dead, read on. (Shift, KING5)

The Seattle City Council decided to follow its only avowedly socialist member, Kshama Sawant, in punishing landlords for operating in the city of Seattle. Evidently not content with past attempts at rent control and allowing tenants not to pay rent during the pandemic, KIRO quotes Councilmember Tammy Morales saying, “(C)apping late fees at $10 is the bare minimum that the city can do for renters who are facing financial hardship.” Evidently, there is no companion legislation on the “bare minimum” that the city can do for landlords, who would have little ability to extract rents from tenants who share the council’s economic philosophy about the wisdom of optional rent payments. The sad news is here. (Shift, KIRO 7)

The current sad state of affairs on Seattle’s streets has observers grasping for ways to praise local elected officials for at least trying to do something. Unfortunately, that is hard to do when the elected officials in question admit they are overmatched by today’s reality and don’t know what to do. Consider this pathetic answer by Mayor Bruce Harrell (“I’m going to take a pass on that”) to the easy-to-predict line of questioning from the Seattle Times Danny Westneat of “Should public use, or possession, of drugs be a crime, both to protect public spaces but also as leverage to coerce users into treatment? Or should it be decriminalized and treated as a health matter?”

That’s right. After 12  years on the City Council voting for the policies that have allowed our city streets to turn into public toilets and drug dens and 18 months since winning election as mayor promising to clean up the city, the mayor “said his views are heavily influenced by growing up in Seattle’s Central Area, where he saw scores of people arrested for using marijuana. He’s now reluctant about get-tough approaches that might double down on that mistake.” So instead, he will make the bigger mistake of doing nothing, even as, according to City Council Member Sara Nelson, “(W)e’ve normalized the use of hard drugs in this city.”  To learn more about the city’s slide under Mayor Harrell read here. (Seattle Times)

Legislative Democrats are rushing to the microphones this week to talk about how much they care about public safety, all because they caved into their party’s far-Left in the State House and passed a bill that forbids police from pursuing suspected car thieves. Instead of correcting the mistakes they made in 2021 – when Democrats panicked after protests by their political base and passed laws restricting police from doing their job – the legislators doubled down on their mistake, with Republican Senate Leader John Braun under-stating that “while I appreciate that the majority allowed a pursuit-reform bill to pass the Legislature, I am disappointed that certain legislators, through their own hubris, posed such an enormous barrier to improving public safety.” Read more about criminal-coddling Democrats here. (Crosscut)

The much-maligned political stunt by Governor Jay Inslee to stockpile a legal drug that shall remain legal while court cases and government regulatory regimes grind on is now the subject of legislative action to make it legal – after the fact. As the Spokesman-Review points out,  “while Gov. Jay Inslee’s plan to purchase 30,000 doses of mifepristone generated many familiar comments by those who support the right to abortion and those who oppose it, a House Appropriations Committee hearing was focused on the bottom line. The Legislature, which is putting the final touches on the 2023-25 operating budget, is being asked to set aside $950,000 for the next two years in the Department of Corrections budget.” That’s right, Gov. Inslee’s campaign stunt to jumpstart his unannounced re-election campaign will coset the state a million dollars to hire people to watch over drugs that aren’t going anywhere. Gee, thanks. (Spokesman-Review)

In something that could only come out of Seattle’s confused public process, a panel is suggesting (three years after the fact) that the “Seattle Police Department should ‘offer a sincere, public apology’ for its violent response to people demonstrating after the Minneapolis police killing of George Floyd.” The misguided activists evidently did not consider who should be asked to apologize to the police officers for putting the officers and the public in danger – should it be the Seattle City Council members who encouraged their assaults on police officers, or the Mayor who compared the activity to a “summer of love,” or even “mostly peaceful except for those trying to kill” protestors themselves? More liberal revisionist nonsense available here. (MyNorthwest, Shift)

IF YOU HAVE TO ASK THE QUESTION, YOU ARE ALREADY LOST

FIGHTING HOMELESSNESS – BY GROWING THE BUREAUCRACY EVERY DAY

IF ONLY IT WERE THIS SIMPLE TO FIX MORE OF JAY INSLEE’S PROBLEMS

To get early insight into what might make Shift’s next Daily Briefing worth reading, tune in to 570 KVI on your AM dial weekday mornings at 8:05, to hear John Carlson talk Washington State legislative politics with Shift co-founder Randy Pepple. And you can always stay for the rest of the Commute with Carlson by tuning in here.

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