Governor Inslee and legislative Democrats have spent the last few years passing laws to make gasoline more expensive and sending out press releases denying that gas prices are going up because of their new laws. It’s a little game they play with the media, just keep repeating what they know is false, and count on reporters to just keep writing it down like it was actually true.

The folks at the Capital Press have a different take on it, and they are not shocked that the emperor is not wearing any clothes following the results of the state’s first Cap-and-Tax auction. “Anyone who maintains that Washington’s carbon credit mandate will have a minimal impact on consumers need only look at the results of the first auction. The take — $299.7 million — was 50% higher than the state had estimated.” And Republican State Senator Drew MacEwen sets that “impact” up for them: “No matter how many times advocates promise, ‘the big oil companies will eat it,’ those of us who live in the real world know most of these additional costs will be passed on to the people, one way or another;” and the Press spikes it: “Indeed, and the cost will be in the billions. Every dollar the state collects will come out of the pockets of Washingtonians.”

But will Governor Inslee and Olympia Democrats continue to insist that their new laws will only add “pennies” to the cost of gasoline? And will the media let them? (Capital Press)

State Senator Shelly Short (R – 7th LD) joined us for this week’s Newsmaker Interview. Short gave her thoughts on Jay Inslee’s failure to follow the law and exempt farmers from the impact of the his expensive cap and trade policies. She also offered insights into the governor killing the bi-partisan effort to improve fish runs on agricultural lands. Among other topics, Short concluded by offering her views on reforming agriculture overtime laws and improving wildfire prevention methods. (Shift WA)

Governor Inslee has been all over the news lately talking about the need to remove homeless camps from state property – usually near freeways – as if this is some new problem. Of course, acting surprised about things going on in the real world is a major part of the Inslee brand.

Unfortunately for the rest of us, The (Everett) Herald reports that Inslee and his transportation bureaucrats know they have been operating drive-through motels long ago, and their answer has been to just close access to state facilities off for the rest of us. The truth according to the report is that “(h)omeless people in recreational vehicles were filling the parking lot almost nightly at the Smokey Point rest area (North of Everett) before it was closed in 2021, according to a state report on encampments in state right-of-way. It was one of 281 encampments identified between 2015 and September 2022 on Washington State Department of Transportation right-of-ways in Snohomish County.” And, that means money coming out of your pockets, as costs “to clean those sites grew from around $200,000 in 2008 to $2.8 million last year, according to WSDOT data.” Just life under the decade-long rule of Jay Inslee. (The Herald)

The Urban Elite is speaking, so we must listen, even though they are warning us about something far beyond anyone’s control – the fate of Sound Transit.  Turns out, as the headline says, “What You Don’t Understand About Seattle’s Light Rail Expansion May Doom the System. That’s because the social (not traffic) engineers at Sound Transit didn’t know they would not be able to put their choo-choo-train stations exactly where they wanted, and because prices have gone up, and because life is hard. The verdict is in and folks at The Urbanist spill it: “There is no spine. There is no Ballard to West Seattle extension. There is no one coming to save us.” OK, so we agree Sound Transit is a boondoggle, now what? (The Urbanist)

State bean counters are salivating over the release of another quarterly revenue forecast Monday, and even before the numbers are in, the Democrats are spending all they can. Just check out the press release from capitol (think actual things, like buildings) budget writers. Guess we’ll find out what matters to them most at 10:30 Monday morning.

Unfortunately, they may not have quite as much of your tax dollars as they want to spend, as other lawmakers are warning that this inflation/recession thing might be real. As the folks at Center Square write, “There is some bipartisan agreement that next Monday’s revenue forecast from the Washington State Economic and Revenue Forecast Council is likely to reflect the reality of historically high inflation and fears of a possible recession. In other words, better-than-expected revenue projections that have been the norm recently may yield more moderate expectations next week, given the current economic reality.” In non-Olympia speak, the good times may not be rolling much longer. (wa.gov, Center Square)

The clock is ticking on your ability to buy a gas-powered vehicle in Jay Inslee’s Washington, and it’s no surprise that his driver in the state’s War on Cars admits, “To be clear, I don’t particularly like driving.”  But that won’t stop this functionary from carrying out his mission to take our state from its current status of (almost) one out of every eight new cars sold being zero-emission to all of them foregoing gas – in a decade. That’s Jay’s plan, and what could possibly go wrong with one of his plans?  (Seattle Met)

OK class, it’s time to take a little remedial Survey Research 101 here. Plenty of media and web outlets have been breathless about the recent poll released by the lefties at Northwest Progressive. Without diving too much into the details, just remember that who a respectable pollster talks to defines what they are talking about – and when you interview a sample of “likely general election” voters as this outfit did, the choice they have will be among two candidates. Now, if you want to check on multiple candidates, as this survey did, you draw your sample from likely primary voters – which is a much different group of people.

That means the “results” being passed around have nothing to do with accuracy. And, the headline from the folks at MyNorthwest.com (“Poll reveals top 2024 WA Governor candidates if Inslee doesn’t run”) is just silly, because all this publicity piece did was “reveal” that voters prefer Republican Bruce Dammeier as their next governor as much as they do three eager Democrats combined. That is, of course, a good thing, but it doesn’t tell you anything about who voters think the top candidates are, just that Dammeier is far superior to the three Democrats included.

And perhaps that is why the Seattle Times is now reporting this afternoon that neither Dammeier nor Constantine plan to run for governor next year. (My Northwest.com, Northwest Progressive, Seattle Times)

At least we can always confirm this by checking the Mayor’s phone records … oh, wait, those were “accidentally” deleted

Must be common-sense Friday…

Ponder – would you fly into Yakima and then get on a fast train to Seattle to complete your trip?