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.  

$25 billion more in taxes

The legislature of Washington State have voted to lay an additional burden on the people of $25 billion, payable over the next 10 years.  Governor Jay Enslee (D) is expected to sign the bill.  Lucky us.  They did this despite the fact the state has a current surplus of $4.5 billion surplus, because of the national economic recovery.

Are you getting tired of this government greed?  Vote for responsible spending in government.  Vote the rascals out in 2020

Cindy Ochoa beats union bosses

Cindy Ochoa’s story undermines every union lie and lays bare their true motivation.

Ochoa, a Spokane homecare provider, opted out of SEIU 775 shortly after the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2014 ruling in Harris v. Quinn struck down mandatory dues and fees for Medicaid-reimbursed caregivers and childcare providers.

By 2017, however, the union began garnishing her checks again. That’s when she contacted the Freedom Foundation.

It turns out one of SEIU 775’s arm-twisters had paid Ochoa a visit a year before to coerce her back into the fold. And once again, she refused to sign.

Unfazed, the union rep simply forged her signature on a membership card and submitted it.

SEIU 775, of course, never scrutinized the document. Nor did the state of Washington, which dutifully began deducting dues once again.

Suddenly the burden was on Ochoa to prove fraud had been perpetrated in her name.

And true to form, SEIU 775 dragged its feet and attempted to dodge every step of the way — long after it was obvious to all that the signature was bogus.

In April, thanks to unrelenting pressure from the Freedom Foundation, the union finally folded its bluff hand and agreed to pay Ochoa $15,000 to settle her claims.

Equally satisfying was the $13,000 SEIU 775 paid to the Freedom Foundation for its legal fees.

After two years, Cindy Ochoa finally has justice and the Freedom Foundation has once again forced SEIU to pay for its misdeeds.

In the meantime, SEIU 775 has been exposed as the predator it is — yet again.

From the Freedom Foundation

Eastern Washington relies on dams -- does Olympia know this?

U.S. Representative Dan Newhouse states he has been a strong supporter of the Columbia and Snake River dams that are the economic lifeblood of our region and all of Eastern Washington. It is disappointing that some folks on the west side of the state cannot recognize that salmon and dams can co-exist. 

In Congress, Newhouse has been working with Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers and other colleagues from the Pacific Northwest to make sure that we are finding ways to ease fish passage and not doing harm to salmon populations, as we utilize the renewable, carbon-free electricity generated by the dams.   

The Tri-City Herald Editorial Board stated, "Why do [the Democrats in Olympia] want another study? Because they don't like the evidence that already shows how vital those dams are to Eastern Washington, how salmon and dams can co-exist and that dams are not the only factor in the fish struggles. Other issues include overfishing and pollution in Puget Sound."  

This should not be a partisan issue, but it requires both sides of the state to listen and learn from one another.

The editorial in the Tri-City Herald.

-- by Dan Newhouse

No one is safe with this legislature in session.

Last Summer, the US Supreme Court ruled government workers have the freedom not to be forced to support unions (Janus v. AFSCME).  The Supreme Court ruling is based on the public employees’ First Amendment right to make personal decisions about whether to financially support a union.

Straightway, Washington State's government union bosses huddled into a dark corner and made a deal with Washington State's "Democratic" Party.  The deal was that the union bosses would use their connections and -the media to support the Democrat legislature candidates, if the Democratic Party would use the state's resources to break the Janus decisions.

Part of the payback came today:  The Washington State House voted to approve House Bill 1575, a government union-backed measure intended to subvert Janus.   HB 1575 claims it will "strengthen the rights of workers through collective bargaining." 

Impolite asks, What workers' rights are strengthened by compulsion?  Isn't it clear that only civil right guarantees workers' rights?  Apparently not to the authoritarian leftists in the Democratic Party of Washington State.

Two Democrats sided with individual freedom.  Tim Sheldon (D-Potlatch) joined the chamber’s Republicans in voting against the bill.  Bob Hasegawa (D-Seattle) voted against the legislation because of his philosophical opposition to removing now-unenforceable mandatory union fee requirements from state laws.

The rest of the legislature's Democrats voted to milk government workers.

“Union-backed lawmakers in Olympia are establishing quite a track record of passing illegal and unconstitutional laws to benefit their political allies at the expense of public employees’ civil liberties,” said Maxford Nelsen, the Freedom Foundation’s director of labor policy.

The the Freedom Foundation promotes individual liberty, free enterprise and limited, accountable government.