Dori: Is Inslee crashing regional economy to get state income tax?

I’ve said it a million times: I support mitigation, and I support our stay-at-home order. But I cannot make any sense of how Governor Jay Inslee has been enforcing these policies.

This week, Inslee emphasized that the state will resume public day-use of state parks, but with no overnight camping.

Uh, Jay … walk five minutes in any direction from your Olympia office. You’ll see hundreds of people overnight camping with no social distancing. We also have those campers in Seattle, Tacoma, Everett, Bremerton, and all other cities in the region.

You won’t do anything about that. But a taxpaying, otherwise-law-abiding citizen who camps in a state park? You threaten them with visits from the State Patrol, the National Guard, and they might hear from Attorney General Bob Ferguson.

What’s the difference? That makes people like me wonder if this is about public health or about politics.

Tuesday’s Seattle Times had a story about how construction has continued at the Seattle Center Coliseum over the last month. Apparently they have to be ready for the NHL.

But I’ve heard from citizens who have gotten construction loans and the shutdown devastated them. Same for contractors and private-sector blue-collar tradesmen. Why is hockey more important than private-sector families?

For years, I’ve said that all local government spending is completely unsustainable when the economy goes south, and that a state income tax is the Holy Grail for state Democrats.

Now those two seem to be falling in place for the local left.

Over at Crosscut, they have a story titled, “Coronavirus shows us why WA has always needed an income tax.” Their piece addresses the point that a progressive income tax is unconstitutional in our state. And that the SCOWA just struck down Seattle’s attempt at an income tax:

People need economic relief right now, and vital public programs and services are under threat. The austerity drumbeat is already sounding. Therefore, the state Supreme Court’s disappointing decision should embolden lawmakers, organizers and advocates to push forward with an array of other progressive revenue measures, state and local. Now is the time to pass a capital gains tax, a wealth tax, maybe some excise taxes on luxury goods like fancy cars and boats. Let’s bump up our state estate tax, too — dead rich people don’t need their wealth anymore, but the living poor sure do.

I’ve worked hard for my meager nest-egg. If I have a choice between passing it along to my kids, or to Kshama Sawant to attract more heroin addicts to our region, I’ve made my choice.

The Crosscut piece closed with the following:

Economic crises break apart the status quo, creating openings for systemic change. The legal system stymied Depression-era farmers and workers in Washington state in their efforts to win progressive tax reform. But taking a broader view, that decade was a winner. Many other states established progressive individual and corporate income taxes in the 1930s … Let’s make this decade a winner, too.

During his stellar run for president, Jay Inslee regularly touted Washington having the best economy in the county. Not having an income tax is the main reason so many Fortune 500 companies make our state their home base. Now would he destroy what he was touting as “the best” to repay the far-left that owns our governor?

I’ve tried to make sense of the baffling disparity of how Inslee has messaged his stay-at-home order. Government continued with business as usual. The private sector is getting wiped out. Why? Could it be, in his run for his last term as governor, that Jay Inslee is willing to use a pandemic to crush our private sector and reward his overlords with a major push for a state income tax?

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