Olympia Extends A Tax on Seattle

During the last election cycle there was an initiative introduced to have a state income tax on those making over $400,000 a year. It wasn’t a big tax rate, about 3.2% I believe. One of the big hammers used by those opposed to the initiative and the income tax and the “wealthy only” was the concern that law makers would use this as crack in the wall that is no state income taxes. Right now, Washington does not tax income at any level, instead raising revenue through other means such as a high sales tax and taxes on events. As it turns out the hammer was a good one because Washington State voters soundly defeated the initiative because voters are smart enough to know that once politicians (especially dems) get their grubby little paws on our money, there would be no stopping them.

Case in point: In King County (Seattle) Olympia legislators voted to extend indefinitely taxes that were due to expire in 2012. This tax was being used to pay off construction of Safeco Field (Mariners Baseball) and Qwest Field (Seahawks). Even if the Safeco debt is done the 0.5% restaurant tax will be extended to 2015.  On a side note here, Qwest Field is due to be paid off in 2020, and the Kingdome is due to be paid off in 2015. It might interest you to know that the Kingdome no longer exists. It was blown up when Quest and Safeco were opened.  Also, there is a 3% car rental tax and 2% hotel tax, which were also supposed to expire. Now the money will go to fund the Convention Center expansion, affordable housing, and Pioneer Square revitalizations projects.

Washington to Recognize Out of State Marriages

The state of Washington has moved one step closer to recognizing same-sex marriages. The House recently voted to give same-sex couples who are legally married in another state recognition as “domestic partners, which has already been the law of the state since 2009.

Rep. Lauire Jinkins (D-Tacoma) says, “This is not a big deal – we are not extending any new rights. It says if you have a marriage in another state, you get a domestic partnership here. You don’t get marriage here – you get a domestic partnership.”

As I have said in the past, I do like living here in the Pacific Northwest, but sometimes being a conservative on the left coast can be a bit frustrating. This is one of those examples. Couple this with President Obama refusing to enforce the rule of law (DOMA), and I am sure that it won’t be long before the state of Washington allows same-sex couples to have legal marriages.

Libya Shutdown Internet Access

Just so you are aware, the Libyan leadership has shutdown Internet access for Libyans.  I guess this would qualify as an emergency.  Would the FCC consider this an emergency if unrest happened in this country?  Mostly likely. What level would the unrest have to reach for the FCC and Sec of DHS to recommend to a President that the ‘Net needs to be shutdown for security reasons?

$200 for Oil is a Recipe for Disaster

Over at Big Peace Peter Schweizer writes about the possibility of $200 a barrel for oil due to the unrest in the Middle East. This is down right scary when you think about it.  Three years ago, oil hit $145 dollars and some might consider it was part of the economic downturn that we are still facing today.  Could you imagine what would happen if oil hits $200?  We would dream of the good old days of 10% unemployment.

I have no doubt that Obama and his group of environmental wackos are dancing with joy over the prospects of $200 for oil. This would achieve two things for the "dear leader". First, it would cause the cost of energy to necessarily skyrocket, which has been one of his goals all along. Obama is one of the most liberal, left wing Presidents we have ever had (hopefully the last one of this kind), with ties to every radical environmental group out there. The goal of many of these environ-wacko groups is for us to be forced into alternative energy solutions.  $200 a barrel would be that wind that forces us in that direction.

Seattle Home Values Decline Yet Again

Looks like the Seattle area is going to catch up with the rest of the west coast when it comes to a depressed real estate market. The Seattle area saw its largest decrease in home values since the market took it biggest tumbles in 2009. From Feb 2010 to Feb 2011 values were down 11%. Some speculate the decrease has to do with distressed homes (foreclosures) bringing down the values even quicker with accounted for 37% of the homes sold.  Windermere Real Estate Co. President OB Jacobi said, “…if you take out the distressed sales for the February, the medium home price jumps from “334,000 to$390,000.”

Until the foreclosures are cleared out of the market, we will not be seeing home values increase any time soon. Too many people bought more house than they could afford and the whole region is paying for it. Plenty of blame to go around. Bankers with their fancy financing options, to homeowners taking on these loans and even possibility lying about their ability to cover the mortgage, to Congress, and Freddie and Fannie who could have done something about this early on but decided that the dream of homeownership needed to be passed along to those who shouldn’t be homeowners.

Obama Lifts Deepwater Drilling Ban, Er, Issues Deepwater Drilling Permits

Since the Deepwater Horizon oil disaster last year the environmental nutjob-in-chief and his partner in grime at the Interior Dept have held deepwater drilling hostage. Twice they attempted to ban deepwater drilling and twice it was overturned by the courts. So rather than issue another ban, they did what this administration has done every time it has run into a legal stonewall: they found a way around it. After the last ban was overturned and, if I am not mistaken, was threatened with contempt of court, they just stopped issuing deepwater permits on the basis that oil companies could not show they could respond to another oil disaster.

Now it seems that with the Middle East in turmoil and gas prices skyrocketing at the pumps, the current administration has found a way to overcome their misgivings and concerns about drilling for oil way offshore. I could be wrong about this. Maybe the oil companies were able to convince Obama and his crew of environmental wackos that oil could be drilled offshore in a safe manner. But then again, maybe with $4.00 a gallon gas staring at them in the face and an election less than two years away, Obama’s political survival mode kicked in and thought maybe the ban isn’t such a great idea after all.

In a perfect world this would also mean the opposition to getting the oil out of the ground up in ANWR will be muffled and we can start working our way towards energy independence. I wouldn’t hold your breath though.

College Scholarship for White Males Only?

This is going to raise some eyebrows and temperatures. Jesse Jackson is going to pee himself.

SCOTUS Rules in Favor for Westboro

“I disapprove of what you say, but will defend to the death you right to say it”

Don’t know who this quote belongs to but events at the SCOTUS today pretty much sums it up.  The Westboro Baptist Church has a right to say what they want and where they want, despite it being as vile as one can imagine.  In what might be a considered a rare event in an ideologically divided SCOTUS, they voted 8-1 in favor of the church. Alito was the only dissenting justice.

Most of you already know the Westboro Baptist Church is infamous for protesting at the funnels of our soldiers killed in battle. They say vile things such as their death are because God hates gays and America supports gays. According to the SCOTUS this falls under the banner of free speech, protected by the First Amendment.

Pentagon Targets Health Care Costs

CNN Money has an interesting story on the increase in the cost of health care of active duty and retired military personnel (plus families).  Costs have risen 300% over the past decade.  The Pentagon is projected to spend $52.5 billion for health care and this has caught the big-wig’s attention.

It has also caught the attention of the Center for American Progress who notes that insurance premiums for military retirees is considerable less than what most others pay for health care programs.  They would like to see a gradual increase in enrollment fees, not cover the first $500 in medical expenses, and increase the cost sharing with Medicare. For military retirees who have a choice to get covered through the current employers, they also suggest basically forcing the retiree into the employer health care plan.

I will agree that I have a pretty sweet deal when it comes to my retiree health care coverage. But I do have a problem with some of the suggestions made by the Center for American Progress.  I do think we should see an uptick in out insurance premiums.  Heck, they haven’t gone up in 15 years.  Many others have seen their health care coverage rise pretty rapidly.  However, I don’t think we should pay what other have to pay.  I outlined my reasons in a previous post the other day (scroll to the bottom). In a nutshell, we defend this country with our lives. 

Seattle School Board to Fire Superintendent

Over at Big Government there is a story about some possible shady dealing between the school superintendent and the unions, which are linked through a health care provider that is the one of the most expensive providers around.

Well it looks like Wisconsin is not the only state to suffer from possible shady dealings at a high level.  Current Seattle Schools Superintendent, Maria Goodloe-Johnson is likely to be fired tonight by the Seattle School board after investigations revealed the misuse of public funds and mismanagement.

The investigations revealed:

A lack of management oversight and accountability allowed potentially fraudulent activity to persist for years without intervention;

Missed opportunities on the part of staff – in varying roles and at varying levels – to keep the school board properly informed;

A workplace culture within some parts of the Seattle Public Schools that caused fear of reprisal among employees who otherwise might report concerns;

Management’s failure to act upon employee concerns that are reported. (Source: Seattle Times)

Based on all that I read about this situation (began about two weeks ago), there are no formal charges of corruption that are to be brought forth. It seems that the school board is happy to hang their hat on the issue of mismanagement and leave it at that.  I would be curious to see if any of those businesses that received money from the Seattle school district are in any way linked to the soon to be fired superintendent. Smoke and fire go together, the last I heard.