Olympia This Week

Inslee continues his capricious dictatorship (Kitsap Sun)

Jay Inslee sparked outrage when he announced his decision to force Cowlitz, Pierce, and Whitman counties back to Phase 2 of his flawed reopening plan. He refused to reconsider his decision and responded by insisting the state stick to the reopening plan.

That all changed this week. Under Inslee's flawed measurements, numerous counties – including King and Snohomish counties – were set to go back to Phase 2 of reopening. Instead, Inslee announced a two-week pause on decisions to move counties from current phases of reopening.  He explained that "remaining flexible" is an important part of reopening.

In other words, Inslee gets to make arbitrary decisions that impact the lives of families and businesses across Washington without any accountability or checks on his power.

~~~~~~~~
        
Pierce County Democrats threaten Inslee with a special session (My Northwest)

Some Democrat lawmakers are already regretting their failure to work with Republicans to place legislative checks on the governor's use of emergency powers. 

This week, Jay Inslee continued his arbitrary use of his emergency powers and announced an unexpected shift in his reopening plan. He announced a pause of any decision relating to shifting counties from their current reopening phase. 

That leaves Pierce County stuck in Phase 2 for at least the next two weeks. 

In response, a group of Pierce County state legislators – including eight Democrats in the House and Senate and four House Republicans – sent a letter to Inslee protesting the decision. The lawmakers demanded Inslee re-examine his decision. They said failing to do so would "require us to consider asking our leadership to exercise the Legislature's authority to call a special session and weigh legislative options." 

If only Democrats took their legislative options seriously and placed the needed  check on the executive's emergency powers before the end of the regular session.

~~~~~~~~
        
State lawmakers look to take additional action on Employment Security Department failures  (Washington Policy Center)

Washington’s Employment Security Department (ESD) lost at least $650 million to scammers in a fully preventable fraud scheme. Adding to the agency's failures, thousands of legitimate claimants waited months to receive unemployment benefits.

The state legislature passed four bills addressing ESD's failures, but lawmakers are not done. A recent exchange between ESD spokesperson Nick Demerice and Senator Ann Rivers (R – Clark County) exposes a significant problem – sluggish bureaucracy.

Demerice responded to inquires of ESD's lack of preparedness by stating, "Like every other phone-based company in the world, Monday morning at 8 a.m. is the worst possible time to try and call us." 

Sen. Rivers offered a simple solution, "If your high-volume is Monday morning, staff up for Monday morning. Fixing ESD requires agency officials "provide the public with more transparency into its internal policies, improve fund balance reporting accuracy, data timeliness and data availability."
        
~~~~~~~~
        
Inslee signs Democrats' state income tax bill (WSJ)

Gov. Jay Inslee signed Democrats' state income tax on capital gains bill this week. The new state income tax already triggered two lawsuits and – undoubtedly – will face legal battles for the foreseeable future. 

A disturbing recent public records investigation revealed Democrat lawmakers have big plans for their new state income tax on capital gains. Emails exposed their plan to use activist courts to force through a statewide graduated state income tax. Democrats insist their new tax will only impact the very rich, but that's not true. Not only do they plan to impose a graduated state income tax on middle-class families, but their new income tax on capital gains will also hit working families.

The Wall Street Journal Editorial Board recently explained, "The Biden and Olympia tax increases on capital gains won't matter to Bill Gates or Jeff Bezos, who are already rich and can hire lawyers to shelter their future gains. 

The people who will be hit unfairly are the middle-class strivers or entrepreneurs who might be capital-gains "rich" for a year after a lifetime of work and investment. The politicians define "fair share" as taking more than half of everything they earn."

Interesting that then candidate Inslee declared in 2016 he did not support a state income tax (Seattle Times)