June 18, 2020

Source: ShifWA.org

Governor Jay Inslee continues to spin the narrative that state unionized employees will be “sacrificing” by getting a second pay raise in a year, and then taking 6-8 furlough days in the coming months. The governor did not want to offend some of his biggest campaign donors, so he is allowing a 3% pay raise to go forward July 1 (on top of a 3% pay raise given last year) and thus the “sacrifice” is not as substantive as he is portraying.  Inslee’s plan is for unionized state employees to take off 6-to-8 unpaid days during the next few months (after their July 1^st pay increase kicks in), which will reduce the individual state workers’ annual salary impact on the budget by approximately 3%.  Thus, by Governor Inslee allowing the 3% pay increase to occur, the state employees are “sacrificing” by making approximately the same amount as they did last year, while working 6 to 8 fewer days. But remember, Jay Inslee was an economics major in college, so this all works out (except for taxpayers). (Governor Inslee media release)

While Republican legislators continue to call for an immediate special session to confront the $8.8 revenue shortfall looming in the state budget, Governor Inslee and Democrat lawmakers continue to avoid making necessary decisions.  Governor Inslee, like virtually every other Democrat official, has also stated that he is not ruling out new taxes on Washington State residents.  It should be noted that even with the predicted reduction in tax revenues, the state is still projected to collect 3.7% more in taxes throughout the current 2019-2021 biennia than it did during the last two-year budget period. Current state government spending is a record-breaking 19% larger than the previous budget. (KING5 News, Dann Mead Smith Facebook post, and Washington Policy Center Blog)

Governor Inslee’s Department of Health (DOH) finally admitted that it has been categorizing some deaths as being caused by the coronavirus which had nothing to do with the disease.  DOH had been including as a COVID death any fatality where the virus was present, even if the person died of other causes (i.e. gunshot wounds, suicide, car accident, etc.). When the state’s Freedom Foundation had first mentioned this fact in May, Governor Inslee attempted to mislead the public by labeling this accurate information as “disgusting” and “malarkey” and that the foundation had been “fanning these conspiracy claims from the planet Pluto.”  Amazingly, in the DOH materials released announcing the correction of its faulty methods, there is no inclusion of an apology from Governor Inslee for his insulting comments. (Freedom Foundation and DOH Fact Sheet)

Governor Inslee’s Department of Health (DOH) also announced that it had been incorrectly calculating the percentage of deaths of those who had been infected with the disease.  The DOH deflated the percentage of deaths from the actual rate of 6.2% down to 5.5%, by including those who had already survived the virus into the calculations.  As with the scandal within the Employment Security Department, Governor Inslee was nowhere to be found to take responsibility for the mistakes of his administration during the announcement of the faulty actions of the Department of Health. (News Tribune)