New Property Tax for WEA Wage Increases, Not Student Services

Gov. Jay Inslee signed SB 5313 into law, permitting your local school district to increase property taxes by another $1 per $1,000 of assessed property value.

Recall that the state already increased your property taxes to fund education including teacher salaries. This new tax is an increase of  between $355 and $590 million in addition to other tax increases adopted this year.

The long game WEA started playing a few years ago has paid off. Under the rules it plays by, the union gets two property tax increases to fund employee raises while families’ school services are essentially unchanged or worse than before (So much for the WEA being about your children). Many districts are laying off teachers to increase class sizes, cutting levy-funded services and diverting funds from student materials to the union contract.

WEA works to increase the portion of education funding earmarked for salary and benefits of members even if it means districts must cut other services. WEA also seeks any other tax increase possible to fund that agenda even if it results in taxing the poor to give raises to those earning already-comfortable wages.

Beginning last spring, WEA pushed a deception that all new education funding was for educator raises and camouflaged the reality that levy-funded salary enhancement was ending. Union leaders bludgeoned districts into handing out large, unsustainable raises.

WEA then advocated a second property tax increase to bail out over-burdened districts.
As you have school board candidates seeking your vote, be sure to ask them if they support increasing property taxes to fund raises for some school employees.

One silver lining is the laws districts ignored when giving unfunded raises will continue to be enforced, and the state auditor is permitted to reduce property tax levies for districts that illegally use enrichment levy money on union-sought extra raises.

Whether these provisions will actually be interpreted to end WEA’s ability to cannibalize services remains to be seen. The burden to enforce rests with Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal and State Auditor Patrice McCarthy — both of whom owe their offices to union donations to their election campaigns.

Reprinted in its entirety from the Freedom Foundation

Weekly update

Seattle Socialists are out-fundraising everyone

The socialist candidates are bringing in some of the largest amounts of all Seattle city candidates. Except, it’s the taxpayers paying for their campaigns.  

Shaun Scott, a Democratic Socialist, has raised over $100,000 in democracy vouchers, $12,000 more than anyone else. Kshama Sawant is fourth in total fundraising for city candidates.

Push is on to tear down dams

 Despite that science tells us hydropower is non-polluting, Seattle Liberals are still advocating for the tearing down of the lower Snake river dams. 

"We’re outnumbered by the other side of the state where people see dam breaching as the obvious solution," said Congressman Dan Newhouse, (WA, 4th district). 

 Breaching the four Lower Snake dams, starting at Ice Harbor near Burbank, WA, would have a marginal effect on the orcas, according to Todd Myers of the Washington Policy Center. 

Washington’s Legislature must be more transparent

It’s not just Republicans appalled by the tactics used by Democrats late in the session. Voters, taxpayers, and editorial boards. “Take, for example, the way the Democratic-majority in the Legislature used a parliamentary trick to get around the state constitution at the end of the just completed legislative session,” wrote the Union-Bulletin Editorial Board. 

That trick allowed Democrats to pass a last-minute tax increase while avoiding public or member input.

Washington Is the Best State in America

US News & World Report named Washington the number one state in America. Our hydroelectric dams have afforded us with an immense amount of clean and affordable energy – which was just one of the many things that makes our state such a special place to call home.

Term Limits on New Taxes

New taxes should be limited to one year or less.  They will be, if Tim Eyman's new initiative I-1648 gets enacted.  Link to the whole initiative

The Legislature played too rough with Washington State taxpayers this last session and needs to be reigned in.  This initiative will do that, plus it will give the People a review mechanism for future tax increase.

If the voters approve a new tax, it will stand.  Otherwise, a new tax will be limited to one year.  This way, we get to decide in November if a new tax is worthwhile.

The Legislature produced quite a few new taxes this session, more than needed for current spending plans.  The Democrats just lust for other people's money, I guess.


Initiative 1648 is worth voting for.

Tax Shock. Thanks a lot, Democrats....

Gentle Reader,

If you’re a fan of lower taxes, fair government, and transparency then you’re not going to be happy.

The Democrats dawdled in Olympia and wasted most of the legislative session, then jammed the budget and tax raising bills through with no time to review or get public input.

Democrats increased taxes over $25,375,000,000 over the next 10 years. Some of the increases are:

• $8,930,000,000 in payroll taxes
• $8,661,000,000 in property taxes
• $3,009,000,000 in business taxes
• $1,884,000,000 in real estate taxes
• $1,089,000,000 in bank taxes
• $1,075,000,000 for the environment
• $368,000,000 on investment services
• $327,000,000 on non-residents
• $32,000,000 on travel agents (Travel agents!)

All those new taxes were added after we had a state revenue surplus of $2.8 billion-dollar.  We had no need to raise taxes at all.

The only way we can stop the out of control taxing and spending by the Seattle fiberals is by defeating them at the ballot box. To do that we need you to step up and join us.

Washington State Gun Rights Update

The right of the people to defend themselves has been modified by the Democratic Party controlled Legislature and Governor Inslee. 

On May 8^th, Governor Jay Inslee signed into law a number of anti-gun bills that had been passed by the Legislature during the 2019 Legislative Session.

House Bill 1465, sponsored by Representative Roger Goodman (D-45), will require Concealed Pistol License (CPL) holders to undergo a state background check on handgun purchases instead of the instant NICS check that is currently being conducted as a courtesy by the FBI.  Unfortunately, beginning July 1^st, the FBI will no longer be conducting these courtesy NICS checks for CPL holders.

House Bill 1786, sponsored by Representative Laurie Jinkins (D-27), will expand firearm seizures to a wider range of protective orders with little to no due process, and in some cases, will remove a judge’s discretion as to whether to impose firearm restrictions upon respondents of protective orders.

Senate Bill 5027, sponsored by Senator David Frockt (D-46), will expand Washington’s existing Extreme Risk Protection Orders (ERPO) by affirming that the ERPO can be issued against minors while also infringing upon the self-defense rights of law-abiding parents or others in the household without due process.

Senate Bill 5181, sponsored by Senator Kuderer, will suspend Second Amendment rights without due process for six months from individuals who are admitted for a 72-hour mental health evaluation, but who are not subsequently involuntarily committed.

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Fortunately, Gov. Inslee did sign House Bill 1934 into law.  Sponsored by Representative Michelle Caldier (R-26), HB 1934 will allow military members who are stationed or assigned out-of-state to renew their CPL by mail. 

Waste of Taxpayer Dollars

By Dan Newhouse

Dan Newhouse

This past Sunday night, the Washington state legislature passed a budget that included $750,000 of state taxpayer money to study the breaching of the Lower Snake River dams. These federal dams are essential to our way of life in Central and Eastern Washington, and spending almost one million dollars from the state to study the breaching of the federal dams is a waste of taxpayer dollars. 

In December, Rep. McMorris Rodgers and I issued a statement when Governor Inslee proposed spending the money of hard-working Washingtonians on a duplicative task force to study a federal power system, and I stand by that statement. I will do everything in my power to save our dams and all the benefits they provide our region and our state. 

We Should Not Ignore Our Successful Renewable Energy Sources.

U.S. Rep. Dan Newhouse represents the 4th Legislative District of Washington State.