Spare me @BobFergusonGov
You helped knock out two Hispanic Republicans to get more democrat seats in Central Washington.
You did lead the charge on rigging elections in our state as AG.
President Trump put out the call to rig the system in order to maintain the Republican majority in Congress, and red states are answering. I support efforts to level the playing field. In Washington state, we would need a two-thirds majority in both the House and Senate to change our redistricting process. If we get that supermajority, I would not only support a redistricting effort — I would lead it. https://t.co/t5JFHmxI8Q
NEW: AT @UW today, activists waving Hamas, Hezbollah, and IRGC flags showed up to target former IDF combat medic and Miss Israel @noacochvaa, who was scheduled to speak on campus.
UW is currently facing multiple federal investigations for antisemitism
We can't talk about our state's budget without talking about the Big Betrayal Bill, which cut essential services like Medicaid in order to fund tax cuts for billionaires.
That bill costs Washington at least $165 million directly in this budget. We worked to mitigate those harms.
There is an alarming rise in antisemitism across Washington State. This is just the latest example... We have fought hard to stop any BDS movements taking place in Olympia and we need leaders to step to make sure they are not taking place locally.
https://t.co/wIOQ3qPy0y
Just after Washington State voted to approve a 9.9% "millionaire tax" on personal income over $1 million, Jeff Bezos, Howard Schultz, and tons fled. The impacts will be ENORMOUS. I gathered the facts, stories, and data and made this mini documentary: https://t.co/hftcDrw9gM
The good news: Washington's snowpack jumped up to 66% of normal for this date
The bad news: 50-degree temperatures in the mountains will quickly turn that into flooding.
Thank God the state is using the CO2 tax to fund flood control.
Wait...I'm being handed a note... #waleg
Within 24 hours, Washington's legislature approved legislation going from 0% to a 9.9% rate on high earners' income (they already taxed capital gains) while a bill to phase out South Carolina's income tax passed in the second chamber. The divergence continues.
This just in 🚨🚨Every House Democrat just voted AGAINST tabling the income tax. Next time a Democrat Representative claims they didn’t support it, just know that every one of them is now complicit in moving forward an illegal income tax.
Go Ahead WA Dems, Keep Pretending Capital Flight is Make Believe:
I know, Pie Crust Pedersen and his friends tell you no one really leaves because of taxes while arguing in favor of the income tax. (And of course use the exact opposite argument in rolling back the estate tax.)
So, I've been collecting some real time data. Above and beyond the emails and texts of people telling me and others about the latest person who packed up and left, here's some other evidence.
Last Thursday, I had dinner with Gov. Brad Little of Idaho. We own an outlet and a good piece of property there we'd like to develop. Upon introducing myself and my home of WA, he laughed and stated, "You know, I used to offer tax incentives to get WA businesses to move to ID. We quit doing that the last few years. Honestly, I wish you guys would quit doing so many dumb things. We're running out of room!" He was very happy to hear we're looking develop our property and going to expand our location.
This morning, I had a call with Gov Gianforte of MT. When I mentioned how much we love visiting MT, he offered to put his head of econ development in touch to look at informing me on all they're working on there. He mentioned a larger, unnamed WA based company with significant employee base they think will be moving there soon. "Steve, there's a lot of people and businesses from WA coming here."
For the last 40 years our family has spent time down in Arizona as a getaway during the long winters in WA. We know a significant home developer here and were visiting with one of his associates that sells higher end homes. He volunteered that they have been flooded with calls from WA residents of late, and of their last 10 large deals, 8 were WA refugees moving to AZ for good.
Also connected with a family that owned and operated a biz in the south sound for over 100 years. Most of them moved out of state soon after selling the biz a few years ago. They are actively in the process of pulling any of the family resources (which are substantial) to any state but WA. Instead of building and investing in their long time home, they are reluctantly leaving to put those resources to work elsewhere for the next 100 years.
You'd have to be drunk to not realize what's going on. Yes, other states have income taxes, corporate income taxes, etc. But they're all LOWERING taxes, not raising or adding massive new categories on top of the current tax regime.
And in the last week, I've had more conversations with Governors of states where I don't live, than the sum total of conversations I've ever had with every WA governor. To them, I've been a checkbook and "villain" not paying my fair share. I'd be fine being left alone, but your malice for the economic builders of our state is ultimately going to destroy it. I'm going to keep fighting, but given all the failure, you have to ask what the hell we're paying for anyway.