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Digital Innovation? Tax It. Newspaper Ads? Totally Exempt. Welcome to Olympia Logic.
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Washington’s War on Wi-Fi: Lawmakers Tax the Future to Fund Their Failures
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In their never-ending quest to plug budget holes of their own making, Washington Democrats have decided the best way forward is to punish the 21st-century economy. Enter Senate Bill 5814—a brazen cash grab masquerading as “modernization”—which slaps the state’s steep sales tax (up to 10.6%!) on everything from digital advertising to IT support, SEO, software development, and even online training.
But don’t worry—if you’re running a newspaper ad or renting a billboard like it’s 1983, you’re totally off the hook. Nothing says “equity” like taxing the tools of today while protecting yesterday’s dinosaurs.
Small businesses are already crying foul, warning that the law will drive up costs, force cancellations, and push jobs out of state. One local agency warned lawmakers are trying to “milk the cow forever”—but that cow has a one-way ticket to Texas if this keeps up.
But as a new op-ed in Center Square points out, this isn’t just bad policy; it might be illegal. The Internet Tax Freedom Act bars states from unfairly targeting digital services, and Washington just took aim with both barrels. Maryland tried something similar and had it smacked down in court. Apparently, Olympia wants to be next in line for a lawsuit—and a taxpayer-funded one, no doubt.
Meanwhile, Democrats insist this is just about “updating” the tax code. But let’s be honest: picking winners and losers, layering on red tape, and driving out innovation isn’t modernization—it’s economic malpractice.
In the end, this tax won’t “modernize” Washington’s economy. It’ll just export it. Read more at Center Square.
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Law-and-Order Sheriff Muzzled by Sanctuary State Politics
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Pierce County Sheriff Keith Swank thought getting elected meant he could actually run his office—but in sanctuary-state Washington, that’s apparently wishful thinking. Swank’s push to cooperate with ICE and the feds has landed him in a full-blown legal cage match with Pierce County Prosecuting Attorney Mary Robnett, who claims his actions violate the state’s 2019 “Keep Washington Working Act”—the Democrats’ prized sanctuary law that handcuffs local law enforcement.
Swank dropped by The Jason Rantz Show to call out the hypocrisy. After being elected, he was stunned when the county council passed an ordinance requiring him to ask permission to promote staff or restructure his department—something the state constitution explicitly allows him to do independently. But Robnett’s office told him to sit down and shut up. She even blocked his attempt to hire his own legal representation in court, and a King County judge backed her up with a temporary injunction.
“I’m at odds with her. I say her legal counsel is wrong,” Swank said. But too bad—she says she’s his legal advisor whether he likes it or not.
Adding fuel to the fire, Swank pointed out that Robnett has a habit of endorsing his political opponents, raising serious questions about neutrality. While he stopped short of accusing her of bad faith, he made it clear the relationship is, at best, dysfunctional.
So let’s recap: An independently elected sheriff can’t run his office without permission, can’t work with federal law enforcement, and now can’t even hire his own attorney to defend his rights. Welcome to Washington, where law enforcement is expected to follow the law—unless the law offends the progressive narrative.
As Swank put it, “It’s a big, huge county, and we have a big police agency. I should be able to run it the way I see fit.” But apparently, in Ferguson’s Washington, the only thing sheriffs are allowed to do independently… is take the blame. Read more at MyNorthwest.com.
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Dems to Drug-Exposed Newborns: Good Luck Out There
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In the latest episode of “Priorities, What Priorities?” Washington Democrats have pulled the plug on a one-of-a-kind, hospital-grade facility that helps drug-exposed newborns survive withdrawal.
The Pediatric Interim Care Center (PICC) in Kent has quietly saved over 3,500 babies in its 35-year history, offering transitional care that’s cheaper than hospital stays and far more humane than sending fragile infants back to unstable homes. But thanks to a last-minute budget gutting, its state funding was slashed from over $700,000 to a laughable $100,000 over two years—then wiped out altogether by Bob Ferguson’s veto. The state’s response? A polite email saying “too bad.”
Now, without a contract from the Department of Children, Youth and Families, PICC can’t legally accept any more babies. Two newborns currently in care—including one described as “extremely fragile”—will have to go somewhere else by month’s end. Where? Who knows. Apparently not the state.
Meanwhile, DCYF never even visited the facility before canceling the contract. No call. No explanation. Just a bureaucratic “shut it down.” Because clearly, nothing screams “compassionate governance” like blindsiding neonatal nurses and tossing detoxing infants into an overwhelmed system with no plan.
While lawmakers and PICC scramble to find emergency alternatives, the facility’s staff and families who’ve benefited from it are left stunned. As one grandparent put it: “They nurtured her back to health. I can’t imagine where she’d be without PICC.”
But hey—at least the state found room in the budget to pay activists $1,000 a pop for Zoom lectures on “Black trans mobility.” Infants born addicted to meth and opioids? Not so lucky. Read more at KOMO News.
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King County Metro Goes Off the Rails—Again
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King County Metro has found yet another way to alienate employees and misuse taxpayer money—this time by hosting a “Pride Month” event featuring the far-left Lavender Rights Project, a group that thinks jails should be abolished, kids should get gender procedures without parental consent, and America is one big soup of “oligarchy, misogyny, patriarchy, and white supremacy.”
As KTTH’s Jason Rantz reports, the virtual event, proudly sponsored by the Office of Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging (you can’t make this stuff up), is supposedly about “Black liberation” and “equitable transportation”—because obviously your bus ride gets better when taxpayer-funded radicals lecture about abolishing prisons.
Employees say they’re sick of being force-fed this political agenda. One insider described a toxic culture where workers are pressured to either parrot the party line or stay silent and hope HR doesn’t come knocking.
But fear not, says Metro leadership—this $1,000 speaker gig (plus other “supportive” funding from King County) isn’t political at all. It’s just an “optional” event where only one side is allowed to speak, no alternate views are welcome, and you can totally skip it if you don’t mind being labeled a bigot.
King County Democrats continue to treat public agencies like their own activist playpens—where transit safety takes a back seat to ideology and the people footing the bill are kept firmly in the dark. Read more at KTTH.
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