Commentary

Inslee is still targeting Snake River dams

It’s no secret that Gov. Inslee is not a fan of the four dams on the lower Snake River. I think it had been a few months since our governor last said anything about these dams, but his silence ended somewhat dramatically when I read a story in today’s Spokesman-Review that said the guy told a group of environmentalists at a virtual fundraiser yesterday that he and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray are exploring options to breach the Snake dams “and replace the benefits they provide,” though I’m very skeptical that the dams could ever be sufficiently replaced. It’s disappointing but not surprising that Inslee still wants to remove the dams – and the energy, transportation and irrigation benefits they provide – even though a federal report released last year advised against breaching the four dams.

A bad month for taxpayers, consumers and public safety

If you’ve gone into stores these past few weeks, you’ve probably noticed some empty shelves. It’s a disturbing sign of a global supply-chain problem that is hurting consumers throughout our country and beyond.

Then look at the taxes and fees, new this month, that will cause consumers to feel it in their wallets even more:

• Thanks to the Legislature’s passage of House Bill 1477 earlier this year, cell phone taxes increased by 24 cents per month starting Oct. 1. The long-term full tax hike of 40 cents per month will take hold at the end of 2022. The total hit to cell-phone customers will reach just under $100 million per biennium. The money raised by this tax hike is dedicated to a new 988 system that is designed to take mental-health crisis calls and fund responses. Addressing mental health is a worthy concern, but cell-phone users should not be punished to achieve this goal, especially when Washington already has the third-highest state/local cell phone tax rate in the country, at just shy of 20%.

• As of Oct. 1, an 8-cent fee is being passed on to customers for each store-provided paper bag they use (there’s no fee for customers who bring their own reusable bag). This bag fee is the result of the Legislature’s passage in 2020 of Senate Bill 5323, which bans single-use plastic bags in stores. The ban and 8-cent fee were temporarily postponed by executive order due to the COVID pandemic, but now they have taken effect. It’s worth pointing out that in an advisory vote last November, more than 61 percent of Washington voters.

Finally, what amounts to a get-out-of-jail bill takes effect this month. The state Department of Corrections is implementing SB 5121, a bill passed this year that dramatically reduces the prison terms for most nonviolent/sex offenses. For violent/sex offenders, this new law expands the time at the end of their sentence that they can serve on electronic home monitoring rather than in prison. DOC projects reducing the state prison population by 1,200 over the next nine months because of this bill. It’s the largest reduction in prison populations in a generation. Considering how crime has risen so much in our state over the past year, releasing inmates early isn’t likely to help people feel safe.

Inslee’s very curious blanket vaccine exemption for 45,000 workers

Much of the statewide news lately has focused on the vaccine mandates Gov. Inslee has imposed on state employees, K-12 education employees and health-care workers, and how they have to be fully vaccinated by next Monday (Oct. 18) or lose their jobs. (By the way, Oct. 21 will mark the 600th day that Inslee will have exercised emergency powers during the pandemic.)

While many workers in key public-service and public-facing jobs are being forced to get a COVID shot–or else–one large group of workers is curiously being exempted from Inslee’s vaccine mandate: in-home care providers who provide services for individuals with functional disabilities, and the medically fragile.

At a time when Inslee’s mandate is forcing even high school football officials to get jabbed or lose their chance to referee games (which might cause games to be rescheduled so the available officials are able to work them), it’s more than a little interesting that the in-home care providers (who are represented by SEIU 775, one of the most powerful lobbying groups in Olympia) are exempted from the vaccine mandate.

I think it’s widely agreed by everyone that COVID-19 is especially dangerous to our elderly, disabled and medically fragile population. So why is our governor letting the in-home providers who care for this vulnerable population off the hook when it comes to getting the shot, while he is forcing high school football refs (who work outside on a large field), fish and wildlife officers (who work in the field) and state agency executive assistants (who work from home) to get vaccinated? It makes you wonder if it really is all about the science, as the governor often says.

Inslee says only he can save lives during pandemic

About two weeks ago, when the governor appeared on the TVW show The Impact, he discussed his mandates and use of emergency powers. During the interview, Inslee said something that may have caused a few viewers to roll their eyes: “There is only one person in the state of Washington who has the capability to save those lives right now and it happens to be the governor of the state of Washington.” (His comment was made at the 16:12 mark of the interview.) Funny, I thought doctors, nurses and other health-care professionals were the ones who have been saving lives during this pandemic.

At about the five-minute mark, he said something that is sure to disappoint my fellow Republicans who have asked him repeatedly during the past 18 months to be involved with proclamations and emergency rules related to the pandemic: “We shouldn’t involve lawmakers in these decisions because we need to act right now.”

-State Senator Mark Schoesler, R-9, Ritzville, Wash.