Washington Democrats insisted billions in new taxes were necessary to “fix” the state’s budget, but the latest revenue forecast suggests they merely kicked the can down the road. While the June forecast added about $554 million to expected revenue for the current budget cycle, it cut nearly $461 million from projections for the next biennium—leaving the overall picture largely unchanged and exposing the shaky foundation beneath Democrats’ tax-and-spend agenda.

As the Washington Policy Center points out, the warning signs are already flashing. The state’s economy is slowing, employment growth has nearly stalled, tax collections are coming in below expectations, and Washington now has the nation’s second-highest unemployment rate at 5.2%. Even the brighter revenue numbers for the current budget rely heavily on a one-time spike in capital gains tax collections rather than sustained economic growth.

Perhaps most telling, the state projects just $2 billion in budget capacity for the 2027-29 biennium—a razor-thin 2.5% cushion on an $80 billion budget. That’s before accounting for inflation, which is expected to far outpace available revenue growth, and it assumes Democrats’ controversial income tax survives its likely trip to the Washington Supreme Court.

Democrats claimed their record tax increases solved a structural budget deficit. Instead, they appear to have bought themselves just enough time until the next budget cycle, when lawmakers will once again be forced to choose between demanding even more from taxpayers or finally confronting Olympia’s spending problem. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

As Seattle Red’s Jason Rantz points out in his latest piece, Rep. Pramila Jayapal is back at it, twisting another news story to fuel Democrats’ favorite open-borders talking points. She claimed children “as young as three” are being forced to represent themselves in Seattle immigration court—but the article in question, by the Seattle Times, reported no such thing. The youngest children mentioned were 6 and 8, families were given time to find attorneys, and advocacy groups were present to help. Even more inconvenient for Jayapal, the hearings she attacked were partly being used as welfare checks to make sure unaccompanied children are safe. Instead of acknowledging the real tragedy—that adults and smugglers sent young children across the border alone, encouraged by years of Democrat policies that signaled the border was optional—Jayapal manufactured a more dramatic story to score political points. Facts may be stubborn things, but that has never stopped Democrats from rewriting them. Read more at Seattle Red.

As Shift WA has reported, this year’s Washington Supreme Court elections could be the most consequential in decades, with five of the court’s nine seats up for grabs just as Democrats’ controversial new income tax heads toward what is expected to be a legal showdown. The outcome could reshape the court that ultimately decides whether the tax survives, making these typically overlooked judicial races anything but routine.

The stakes are especially high because Washington voters have rejected income taxes 10 times, and nearly a century of Supreme Court precedent holds that income is property under the state Constitution, meaning it cannot be taxed progressively. But rather than respecting those repeated decisions, Democrats passed an income tax anyway. Internal emails even revealed lawmakers hoped the new law would force the Supreme Court to revisit and overturn that longstanding precedent.

Questions have been rightfully raised about the court’s independence after Gov. Bob Ferguson appointed two new justices shortly before signing the income tax into law, adding to concerns that Democrats are trying to stack the deck before the case reaches the bench. While candidates cannot comment directly on pending litigation, several challengers have argued Washington needs judges who will interpret the law—not advance a political agenda.

After years of losing the income tax debate with voters, Democrats appear to have shifted their strategy. If they can’t convince Washingtonians to approve an income tax at the ballot box, they’re hoping a friendly Supreme Court will do it for them. Read more at The Center Square.

Washington Democrats aren’t backing away from the controversial platform they adopted at last month’s state convention—in fact, they’re proudly embracing it. State Democratic Party Chair Shasti Conrad celebrated Washington becoming the first state party to make reparations part of its official platform, arguing taxpayers should address the “long-term effects” of slavery despite no one alive today having owned slaves or been enslaved. The platform, approved unanimously by more than 1,000 delegates, calls for studying and implementing reparations. Meanwhile, Democrats also doubled down on their anti-Israel agenda after delegates overwhelmingly passed language condemning U.S.-Israel military cooperation and blaming Israel for rising antisemitism. Even Jewish Democrats complained they were shut out of the process, with Sen. Jesse Salomon saying the party spoke for them without consulting them. Conrad’s response amounted to little more than, “sorry you feel that way,” while making clear the delegates—and the party leadership—have no intention of changing course. Read more at Seattle Red.