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OLYMPIA–Pandemic restrictions are preventing Washington's citizens from setting foot inside the state Capitol during this year's legislative session, but they aren't stopping people from voicing their opinion on bills before the Legislature. A good case in point is Senate Bill 5114, a bipartisan proposal that I'm proud to co-sponsor. Right now, no county in Washington has made it past Phase 1 of Gov. Jay Inslee's latest COVID-19 recovery plan, announced Jan. 11. This bill would move all of W...
If Herefords were black and Angus were red would breeders of Herefords breed Angus instead? I mean, would the people who bred Herefords first be now breeding Angus if things were reversed. Or would they be loyal to red, white and true To color of cowlick be always true blue? If such were the case would they dis all the blacks, Tell jokes about prolapse, compare them to Yaks More suited for saddle or wearin’ a yoke Than stubbornly breeding until they go broke. And those of the Aberdeen Angus c...
Despite the budget being balanced, billions in reserve, and projected revenue growth of 7.2% the Governor is yet again proposing an income tax on capital gains in his new budget. Here are the details on his proposed 9% capital gains income tax. The Governor, however, claims that this type of tax isn’t an income tax. What does he know that the IRS and every other state across the country doesn’t? IRS: “You ask whether tax on capital gains is considered an excise tax or an income tax? It is an income tax. More specifically, capital gains are trea...
Inslee’s Unemployment Insurance tax recovery plan expands costs so much it will drive the proverbial stake through the heart of small business, stopping whatever remaining beats business in Washington State has left, killing it once and for all. If he thinks utilizing the Senate Bill 5061, which only spreads the huge tax increase over a longer period of time, will make it better, he isn’t thinking clearly. Employers have shouldered the majority of cutbacks, payouts for no work, lack of revenue due to shutdowns, increases of having emp...
A. F. Branco...
Dr. Fosse, once of Pretoria, told me about Martha and Arthur, two star crossed rare white rhinos. In a governmental gesture of goodwill, South Africa agreed to ship Arthur to Tanzania to mate with Martha. Brilliant veterinarians, competent game management officials, long-winded reproductive specialists and the press discussed at length the procedures involved and the benefits that would accrue with these international relations. They soon discovered that rhinos cycle according to the length of...
For years Washington's Department of Commerce has highlighted the state not having an income tax as being a competitive advantage for employers. Surprisingly, Commerce recently updated its "Choose Washington" website to remove the reference about the state not having an income tax on its "Pro-Business" webpage. Commerce's sudden removal is contrary to years of statements acknowledging that no income tax was a powerful inducement to locate business in the state. When testifying on SB 5096 (9%...
To the editor, Some of us from the other side of the political spectrum wondered has Garfield county always been so exclusively supportive of the Republican party as it is today. It led to some research on the voting history of the county. The first presidential election vote in the county took place in 1892. There has been a total of 33 presidential elections in this county. The county has voted the same as the State of Washington 76% of the time and the same as the nation 76% of the time including through the election of 1988. This includes...
Governor Inslee has seemed to push off responsibility for the welfare of the state to other state governmental entities so he can focus on what he’s really after, his environmental and tax agendas. Never in my over six decades have I seen a governor ignore his constituents’ commerce and financial needs by allowing the Washington State Department of Health to determine how every citizen will function in their daily life. Yes, we have a flu virus, which is not something out of the ordinary. Throughout our thousands of years of existence, humans h...
A. F. Branco...
Grandpa Tommy’s dad used to say “A cowful is a substantial quantity.” According to my research, the rumen on a mature cow can hold up to 300 pounds. And by anybody’s standards that is quite a bit. Say you had a cowful of pocket change. You’d almost need a cow to keep it in. Say you had a cowful of wet laundry. It would take a forklift to get it in the dryer. Say you had a cowful of manure. Well, I guess a lot of us do. If cowful became an accepted unit of measure it could replace the antiquate...
The Senate Ways & Means Committee will hold a public hearing on January 14 at 4 p.m. on the Governor’s proposed income tax on capitals gains (SB 5096). Remote testimony is available and it is super easy to sign up for (I’ve already registered). The bill defines “Federal net long-term capital gain” as “the net long-term capital gain reportable for federal income tax purposes…” Senate Bill 5096 also says “taxpayers owing tax under this chapter must file, on forms prescribed by the department, a return with the department on or before the date...
OLYMPIA–Like many of you, I’m encouraged by the news in recent weeks that COVID-19 vaccines developed by Pfizer and Moderna have been approved by the federal government and that doses of these vaccines are being shipped throughout our nation, including doses delivered to Washington. But I was unhappy to read a report earlier this week in the Spokesman-Review that inmates at the Airway Heights Corrections Center near Spokane and the Coyote Ridge Corrections Center near Connell were receiving the...
A. F. Branco...
Embarrassing moments. Nobody likes to talk about them. Oh, they’ll talk about slipping on the ice on their first date or getting bucked off a gentle horse. Other folks empathize and usually they laugh. But it makes people uneasy when it’s really embarrassing. They might titter nervously but if it’s really awful it makes us uncomfortable. It could happen to me! Like the time I leaned into a car window and asked a new acquaintance to dance and she didn’t have any legs. It was shattering to a hi...
Imagine you walk into a grocery store and instead of shopping for food based on quality and price, the market does not post any prices. You fill up your shopping cart with anything that looks attractive. At the check-out stand, a third party, let’s say your employer or the government, suddenly appears and pays for your groceries. Sounds crazy, yet that is exactly what happens when a patient visits a doctor or hospital. Whether you believe health care is a right or not, everyone can agree that m...
To the editor, In the December tenth edition of the East Washingtonian, there was a letter to the editor supporting voter fraud in the Presidential election. Generally, I read the letters to the editor, but before I read them, I do take note of the person submitting the letter. How this individual has been selected as the mouthpiece of the local Democrat contingent has me puzzled. After church one Sunday I was involved in a discussion with about eight parishioners. The conversation was politics. Every person participating in the conversation...
OLYMPIA–When about two-thirds of legislators and I voted in 2015 for the “Connecting Washington” transportation package, we did so despite also passing a large gas-tax increase. We voted for this package–and gas-tax hike–mainly because it would fund needed highway projects throughout the state, including some in our very own 9th District. So, you can imagine how unhappy I was to learn that Gov. Inslee’s recent state transportation budget proposal might result in the delay of several road projec...
A. F. Branco...
I consider myself among other things, a former horse mechanic. The horses I did veterinary work on were ranch and feedlot beasts of burden. Workin’ animals from man’s point of view. Up until about fifty years ago that would describe most of the horses vets worked on. I was always a little vain about distinguishing that my patients worked for a living, earned their daily oats and made a contribution to the good of mankind. Backyard horse practice sorta ranked with spayin’ cats and trimming Chihu...
OLYMPIA–State law requires the governor to put a budget proposal on the table for legislators to consider, and that typically happens at this time of year. After seeing what Governor Inslee wants in a new state budget for 2021-23, and how he would pay for it, I was reminded of what my political hero Ronald Reagan said to Jimmy Carter in a debate during the 1980 presidential campaign: "There you go again." The state budgets run two years at a time–a biennium–so this is the fifth time Insle...
He was the last burro left in the dusty corral. His two companions had been sold by the man. They were younger, stronger and finer looking even by burro standards, which are quite high. They were worth more and brought more money which was what the man needed. Pickin’s were slim. Every evening the man would stake the last burro out down below the spring to graze. During the day he went with the man and packed mud or water or rocks or wood. One morning the man fed him a small bowl of grain. T...
Despite the budget being balanced, billions in reserve, and projected revenue growth of 7.2% the Governor is yet again proposing an income tax on capital gains in his new budget. Here are the details on his proposed 9% capital gains income tax. The Governor, however, claims that this type of tax isn’t an income tax. What does he know that the IRS and every other state across the country doesn’t? IRS: “You ask whether tax on capital gains is considered an excise tax or an income tax? It is an income tax. More specifically, capital gains are trea...