There has been plenty of coverage since the last election of the change in the Seattle City Council majority from Socialist Left to merely Far Left, and how real changes may be coming to how the city is run. Now, from the Post Alley, we can see that with “the Mayor and City Council staring down a deficit of approximately $230 million” it turns out that such a “deficit is an incredibly difficult problem, and there certainly aren’t any quick or easy solutions on hand.”

The reality is that the previous Mayor and Council knew they were driving the city’s finances into a deep fiscal ditch, as despite huge revenue growth in the last decade, “the city’s budget experts warned that this revenue growth was not sustainable. In part this warning was an acknowledgement that the economy would be cyclical. It was also a reflection of a hidden worry – inflation.”

Of course, the council big-spenders made the problem worse after getting millions handed to them in COVID money because “the way the money was spent didn’t reflect the one-time nature of the federal pandemic funding, and it created expectations for ongoing spending that exacerbated the widening revenue gap.” Read on to see how filling that “gap” is no fun… Post Alley.

Budget problems seem to be in the news throughout Washington politics these days, even in places where it’s not elected Democrat politicians making the bad over-spending decisions. It turns out, according to the Freedom Foundation, that the Washington Education Association, the state’s largest union, that despite over $50 million in revenue “the union spent even more, finishing the year $3.4 million in the red.”

It was easy for the leaders to just such deficit spending because the money was going straight into their pockets, as the WEA’s financial filings “disclose its 15 highest-compensated officers and staff”, and all of them were “earning well over $200,000 per year in total compensation”, led by the Executive Director pulling down over $415,000 to spend union dues, while the union President had to make due with only $312,000 for not teaching.

You can read on for more fun facts about how the teachers’ union shuffles its members dues into the pockets of the people its leaders like, including the “largest recipient of WEA grant funds was the WEA’s own political action committee, WEA-PAC, which received two contributions from the union of $500,000 each in the lead-up to the 2022 elections.” … Freedom Foundation.

The economic damage delivered by Democrats in the recent legislative session is still to be determined, but the fact they made it easier to raise taxes is no surprise. Part of that tally will include what the Seattle Times is reporting about how Democrats in Olympia created new ways for King County Executive Dow Constantine to get into taxpayer wallets after last fall he “issued dire warnings about the county’s budget situation”.

Shift readers know that Executive Constantine makes an annual plea for legislators outside of King County to join their furthest Left colleagues in allowing him to raise taxes, arguing most recently that with “inflation running hot the last several years, Constantine said, the county’s expenses were outpacing the money it was able to bring in.” So, his liberal buddies in Olympia, “passed two obscure bills, largely along party lines, that could help King County — and only King County — raise taxes to fill its budget gap.”

You can rest assured that the Democrats are putting their finger to the wind to determine the right course of action, as according to one clueless council member his Executive Constantine is “(P)utting out polls to see what (taxes) would be most tolerable to the public, considering all the different factors and variables in the upcoming budget.” Read on to see that when there is not enough money flowing in, reducing the amount of spending going out is never one of Executive Constantine’s options. … Seattle Times, Shift.

One of the top comedies coming out of Seattle so far this year concerns the escapades of Seattle Municipal Court Judge Pooja Vaddadi and her incredibly shrinking job duties, thanks to allegations of bias and incompetence. Now KUOW tells us that the controversial jurist will take a step back to “focus on parking tickets and traffic infractions instead of criminal cases.”

Shift readers will recall that the folks in charge of putting criminals away in the city begged for relief from a biased judge and that “attorneys that have appeared in [Judge Vaddadi’s] courtroom believe that her decisions demonstrate a complete lack of understanding, or perhaps even intentional disregard, of the evidence rules, even on basic issues.” You can read on to see how legally diminished the judge is that she can believe that “(T)echnically it’s not a demotion, honestly I wouldn’t consider it one anyway.” … KUOW.

Shift will leave with little comment the news from the (Tacoma) News Tribune of a law passing allowing booze in strip clubs, other than to note that the Democrats in charge of the schedule in Olympia claimed they were too busy and did not have time to hold public hearings on citizen initiatives, as required by the state constitution, but they did have time to hold public hearings in both chambers and pass a law to allow booze in strip clubs.

It seems, after decades of effort by supporters of illegal activities, that they were in position to capitalize on a fake controversy after a “series of surprise law enforcement inspections targeting Seattle LGBTQ+ nightlife venues elicited public backlash and inspired state lawmakers to apply new scrutiny to the state’s lewd conduct laws.” And you can read on to see nothing motivates Democrats to action faster than showing supporting for “lewd conduct” when their base voters are involved in the conduct. … (Tacoma) News Tribune.

The latest embarrassing twist in the Democrats’ effort to destroy the four Lower Snake River dams (and the Eastern Washington economy that depends on them) is having former Michigan Governor (and current Energy Secretary) Jennifer Granholm tell a congressman representing Eastern Washington that his constituents don’t really matter when the Democrats are fighting climate change. That’s the news coming out a federal hearing covered by the Tri-City Herald where the “nation’s energy secretary defended a recent federal agreement on the lower Snake River dams after Rep. Dan Newhouse, R-Wash., said breaching the dams would be ‘catastrophic’.”

The defense from the Biden Administration of their rip-out-the-dams approach is that it won’t happen for a few years. You can read on to see how the greenies’ plan could impact some things, like the fact that currently “60% of all U.S. wheat exports are barged through the lower Snake River dams, with a single four-barge tow carrying as much wheat as about 540 semi-trucks.” … Tri-City Herald.

This election year promises to be a busy one, with the ballot filled with races without incumbents, where special interests will try to quietly work their way. One of those that will draw less attention than most (while still pulling in big bucks as the Washington Observer is writing) features a pair of  “heavyweights in the still-crowded race for Public Lands Commissioner (who) raked in more cash last month as their competitors returned to the campaign trail.”

The PDC watchers noted that the preferred choice of the extreme environmentalists who normally fund Democrats is “King County Councilmember Dave Upthegrove, who raised $32,000 in February … (bringing) his campaign’s war chest to $286K.” The most mainstream candidate in the race is former U.S. Representative Jamie Herrera Beutler, “who took in $35K that month. That brings her campaign’s running total to $280K.” Read on for more details about a campaign that will only pick up intensity. … Washington Observer.

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