Behind The Line Podcast

Well the antics from incoming Washington governor Bob Ferguson have already begun.
Ferguson, a Democrat, announced Monday that he is creating a subcommittee in his transition team that will have the sole purpose of fighting Project 2025.
The transition team expects Project 2025 to be pushed by the Trump Administration despite President-elect Trump’s efforts during his campaign to distance himself from the controversial proposal.
Ferguson’s committee will be co-chaired by Planned Parenthood Alliance Advocates CEO Jennifer Allen and King County Councilmember Jorge L. Barón, who is also a former executive director of the Northwest Immigrant Rights Project, Fox 13 reported.
“We are preparing in case President Trump attacks Washingtonians’ core freedoms,” Ferguson said, according to the outlet. “We will keep Washington moving forward no matter what happens at the federal level.”
Project 2025 is a controversial initiative organized by conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation that was authored by a number of conservatives, including some former Trump administration officials.

The initiative offered right-wing policy recommendations for Trump’s second term, including replacing civil service employees with Trump loyalists, abolishing the Department of Education, criminalizing pornography, eliminating DEI programs, cutting funding for Medicaid and Medicare, rejecting abortion as health care, carrying out mass deportations and infusing the government with Christian values.

During his campaign, Trump had sought to distance himself from the initiative, which has been criticized as being an authoritarian and Christian nationalist plan that would undermine civil liberties, saying he knew nothing about it, that parts of it are “absolutely ridiculous and abysmal” and that its backers are on the “radical right.”

Former Trump officials also told POLITICO ahead of Election Day that people involved in Project 2025 would be blacklisted from his administration.
But Trump has selected authors and contributors for Project 2025 to serve in his next administration, including Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget, Tom Homan as “border czar,” Stephen Miller as deputy chief of policy and Brendan Carr as chair of the Federal Communications Commission.
“This is a critical time in our nation as we look to the possibility of our communities being under attack from many different directions,” Allen said, according to Fox 13. “I’m honored to serve on Governor-elect Ferguson’s transition team and to co-chair this subcommittee to support his leadership in our state and country in championing and safeguarding reproductive rights and all of the rights of Washingtonians.”

Barón said he is “honored to assist Governor-elect Ferguson in his transition into this new role and to co-chair this important subcommittee,” Fox 13 reported.
“As an immigrant and as the proud parent of a trans daughter, I am particularly grateful that the Governor-elect is committed to protecting all Washington state residents, and especially those communities at greatest risk of having their rights attacked by the incoming federal administration,” Barón continued.
Ferguson’s office said the subcommittee will establish policy priorities for his first 100 days in office, according to Fox 13, although specific policy proposals have not been released.
Its as though Washington doesn’t have enough problems of its own, including a possible looming budget shortage. And yet we are already creating new bureaucratic oversight that doesn’t even apply to Washington. I wonder how much these government goons will be paid for running this committee. I’m sure this is just the beginning of the government bloat that will occur under a Ferguson governorship. Washingtonians can’t seem to get enough of the government teet. Well, Washingtonians in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties primarily.
Earlier this month, state officials reported that the operating budget faces a $10-12 billion deficit over the next four years.
Unlike during the Great Recession, the budget deficit isn’t due to a decline in revenue, as many of the state’s tax collections are at record levels while other new taxes have been imposed.
Although the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council recently lowered expected revenue for the current and next biennium by $270 million, the state Department of Revenue reports that all state taxes generated $35.4 billion for the fiscal year 2023, a 5.8% increase from the 2022 fiscal year.
In that timeframe, the state sales tax revenue increased by 6.2%, while revenue from that has doubled since 2014, from $8 billion to almost $16 billion.
Other taxes have also had significant increases over the past 10 years. In the fiscal year 2023, the property tax brought in $4.5 billion. In 2014, it brought in $2 billion.
One major tax to buck that trend is the real estate excise tax, which brought in $1.4 billion in the 2023 fiscal year, a 44% decrease from 2022. Yet, it’s still higher than the amount generated in 2007 when the housing market was at its peak.
Other significant tax increases or major new taxes include:
The estate tax, which increased from $366 million in 2022 to $847 million in 2023, a 131% increase.
The capital gains tax, which started collections in 2023 and brought in $847 million.
The business and occupation tax, which increased from $6 billion in 2022 to $6.6 billion in 2023, an 11% increase.
Overall, state revenue has almost doubled compared to 2014, when it brought in $17.8 billion.
During the Great Recession, state revenue began to decline beginning in the 2009 fiscal year. Revenue would not begin to increase until the 2011 fiscal year, which was still below 2008 revenue levels. Revenue finally went above 2008 in 2013. As a result, the state Legislature faced major budget deficits, including $5.1 billion in 2011 alone.
In his Nov. 8 memo to state agency directors, Office of Financial Management Director Pat Sullivan attributed the budget deficit “to the recent revenue forecasts that were adjusted down and the increase in caseloads and the cost to maintain existing programs.”
“Transportation budget revenue projections also have trended down for several forecasts,” he wrote. “That, along with rising costs and increasing demands, has created a situation where revenues are not covering current commitments.”
Reacting to ERFC’s latest revenue forecast, Senate Ways & Means Chair June Robinson, D-Everett, wrote in a statement that “I will work with my colleagues and our incoming Governor to serve the needs of the people of Washington and provide the services they expect from their state government. At the same time, we need to right-size government to fit our post-COVID reality.”
She added that “during the pandemic, many of our decisions centered on helping Washingtonians, schools, small businesses, and others simply survive the unprecedented challenges they faced. Now, as we look to the future, we’re building budgets that allow us to prioritize growth and sustainability without COVID overshadowing every decision. This is an opportunity to refine our focus and ensure our resources align with the needs of the people of Washington.”
Elected officials like ERFC Chair Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, argue that the budget situation isn’t quite as dire as it’s made out to be. In a statement she wrote that “the chief economist warned our council that the state’s economic growth would be slow this year, and that has been the case. But still, between projected revenue and available reserves there is more than enough to balance a 2025-27 operating budget that maintains the services and programs being provided now.”
She added that “the problem – and the reason our Democratic colleagues are already talking about tax increases – is the billions of dollars’ worth of new spending requests we are likely to see in the governor’s budget proposal. Those include $4 billion tied to new collective bargaining agreements with state workers.”
Posting on X in reaction to the proposed bargaining agreements, Washington GOP Chairman Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen wrote that “I’ll believe this projected state budget deficit is a real crisis when left-wing bureaucrats in Olympia start acting like it’s a real crisis. Until then, I’ll assume the projection is just an excuse to raise state taxes even higher.”
Making a similar claim is Washington Policy Center’s Small Business Center Director Mark Harmsworth, a former state legislator. In a recent blog post he wrote that “the state does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. It seems the budget deficit is a state-created spending problem that the state leaders don’t want to acknowledge.”
We’ve always had a spending problem in this state, all our social welfare programs and no matter how much they spend its never enough and it never changes whats happening, in fact it continues to get worse. This is just another excuse to take create MORE taxes and take MORE of your money. This will be a very interesting legislative session and you can bet we’ll be keeping our eyes on it.

Washington Democrats want to make homelessness a civil right!

A Democratic state representative in Washington state is pushing legislation that aims to make homelessness a civil right, according to a report.
State Rep. Mia Gregerson is promoting a bill that would make homeless people a protected class and shield them from “discrimination based on housing status,” according to a draft of the bill obtained by “The Jason Rantz Show” on KTTH. The obtained draft is dated Oct. 10, 2024.
“[M]any communities within Washington are enacting and enforcing laws that disproportionately impact homelessness or make living in public a crime,” the document reads. “These laws are potentially unconstitutional, make it harder for people to exit homelessness, do not solve the underlying problem of homelessness, and waste precious public funds.”
The bill comes in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Grants Pass v. Johnson, according to the report, in which the nation’s high court held that the Eighth Amendment’s protection against cruel and unusual punishment does not prevent a city from enforcing public-camping ordinances against the homeless.
Gregerson told Fox News Digital in a statement on Wednesday that the reported draft was a “starting point” based on legislation that failed to pass in 2019.
“To clarify, the language in the Jason Rantz article is not a bill but a starting point from earlier this year,” the lawmaker said in the statement. “What I will propose will be significantly different from the 2019 bill because we are working on a different set of issues. There has always been a plan to share this broadly including all of the cities. Drafts such as this one are a continuation of meaningful work we have done in the past.”
The drafted legislation reported on says it would grant the homeless “the right to survive in a nonobstructive manner” on public property, including plazas, courtyards, parking lots, sidewalks, public transportation facilities and services and room or areas within public buildings that are open to the public and during normal operating hours.
It further states the homeless would be allowed to live on public property when “that person has no reasonable alternative but to survive in public space and existing shelter facilities within the local government’s jurisdiction are inadequate in number or are functionally inaccessible.”
Kevin Schilling, the mayor of Burien, a suburban city in Gregerson’s district, told “The Jason Rantz Show” that he was “disappointed” that the representative did not consult the City Council or city before drafting the legislation.

“My hope is the legislature this year works to offer support to cities by expanding substance use disorder programs, emergency shelter capacity, and law enforcement assistance so that each element of this issue can be tackled accordingly,” he said.

How about our right to use public land, land your tax dollars paid for? How about our right to use public services like buses and other public transportation without being accosted by mentally ill or drugged out transients? This will only serve to contribute to increased crime and less public safety if that’s possible in places like Seattle and King County. You’ll have homeless camped out everywhere. Legally. This law also will not solve the underlying problem, which is mental illness, drugs and criminal behavior. This law will also waste public dollars and at the same time serve to trash our public structures that were not built to house people or allow camping. Seattle has already had issues with sidewalks being over run with transients to a point where disabled people could not use the sidewalks with their wheelchairs to get through certain area’s of the city. Seattle touted passing the biggest property tax increase in city history in the last election to complete some transportation projects including adding more sidewalks. So in effect that was just to add more camping area’s for the homeless? Its our civil right to be able to travel safely through the city and use city public services without threats to our safety. Its our civil right for our tax money, which more and more of is being taken, to be spent in a responsible way. This is just one more example of government irresponsibility and over reach. Pretty soon they’ll be telling you they can camp on your property and there’s nothing you can do about it. When are they going to address the real reasons for homelessness? Mental health, drugs and criminal activity. Instead of always skirting around that and trying to tell us its just the high rent and economic factors. That is so far from the truth. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been wasted. King county just continues to fuel the drug problem. Someone, somewhere, is making a lot of money off of this, its absolutely the only thing that makes sense about the way this is being handled. The same way the feds make money off of war, these local politicians are backdooring this homeless crisis.

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