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Washington's new gas tax kicks off July 1st

13

Comments

  • BleachedAnusDawgBleachedAnusDawg Member Posts: 12,731

    Did the state's population double since 2013? No. HH wrong again.

    Over the past ten years, Washington state's budget has seen significant growth. In 2013, when Jay Inslee became governor, the state's annual operating budget was approximately $38.4 billion. By 2025, the state is now spending almost twice as much annually, with a budget of around $75.5 billion.

    https://www.washingtonpolicy.org/publications/detail/washington-state-wants-to-increase-bureaucrats-salaries-by-13-billion-despite-claims-the-state-is-facing-a-budget-shortfall

  • SourcesSources Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 4,285 Founders Club

    He doesn't have a move other than vague, indirect potshots. He'll move onto another thread to espouse some inane legal position as a gotcha

  • RaceBannonRaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 111,557 Founders Club

    H in every thread

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  • Pitchfork51Pitchfork51 Member Posts: 27,458

    I’m hearing that increasing gas taxes do….something

  • HHuskyHHusky Member Posts: 23,076

    Nobody is denying that real spending has increased. Still, you've got a state that has grown by about a third during the 21st Century and cumulative inflation over that time. The state has added popular capital improvements that you also have to operate and maintain. Mandates, particularly in education, which were severely underfunded for quite a while. Etc.

    If Washingtonians aspired to make the state like Arkansas, Mississippi, or Louisiana, they'd vote accordingly. They haven't shown that they aspire to that.

    Meanwhile, because we've got a retarded tax structure, we're making Race pay more than he should. Still, he remains here.

  • RaceBannonRaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 111,557 Founders Club
  • HHuskyHHusky Member Posts: 23,076
  • Bob_CBob_C Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,092 Swaye's Wigwam

    The population growth has been pretty stagnant since about 2000. You can go ahead and defend the spending increases on the merits of the spending programs if you want, but it’s a losing argument looking at the high level macro stuff.

  • HHuskyHHusky Member Posts: 23,076

    If by "stagnant" you mean Washington's growth has vastly exceeded the growth of the US as a whole, then you're right.

  • Bob_CBob_C Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,092 Swaye's Wigwam

    State opex spending per citizen has increased by 72% since 2013. Core CPI index has increased 36% during that same period. So including population gains, spending has significantly outpaced inflation.

    Laughable argument to justify the spending on inflation and population growth.

  • Bob_CBob_C Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,092 Swaye's Wigwam
  • HHuskyHHusky Member Posts: 23,076

    It wouldn't. But you and I both know the nominal increase is not the real increase. I agree there's a real increase, and it's not small.

  • Bob_CBob_C Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,092 Swaye's Wigwam

    Say specifically what you are alluding to please.

  • WestlinnDuckWestlinnDuck Member Posts: 16,872 Standard Supporter

    It was worth it to end homelessness and getting an actual education for the kiddies.

  • HHuskyHHusky Member Posts: 23,076

    Real spending has not doubled. The nominal spending increase is not the real spending increase. Nor is it the per capita spending increase, for that matter.

    But I concede real spending rose by a lot.

  • Bob_CBob_C Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 12,092 Swaye's Wigwam

    So what did we get for our huge gain in real spend? Must have been something good.

  • RaceBannonRaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 111,557 Founders Club
  • WestlinnDuckWestlinnDuck Member Posts: 16,872 Standard Supporter

    Here is what is going on in Minnesota with Tampon Tim at the helm. The dazzler is opposed to government waste and fraud but it just isn't a voting issue. In Washington the state got looted during the chicom crud blue state crisis. Minnesota politicians wanted nothing to do with combatting fraud and waste. Just like the US dems went ape shit over the Doge discoveries.

    https://www.powerlineblog.com/archives/2025/06/more-fraud-than-we-imagined.php

    More Fraud Than We Imagined

    A few weeks ago, 60 Minutes, to its credit, did a segment with Linda Miller, who spent ten years in the Government Accountability Office and wrote a rulebook on preventing fraud in federal programs. Miller says there is vastly more fraud in federal spending than people realize:

    Last year, the Government Accountability Office released a report estimating the federal government loses as much as $521 billion a year to fraud. But Miller and other fraud experts believe the number is higher.

    Linda Miller: I believe the government is losing between $550 billion and about $750 billion a year. We’re coming up close to the $1 trillion amount– is lost, every year, to fraud.

    Who commits the large-scale fraud? Much of it is done by foreign actors and organized criminal gangs:

    Linda Miller: What we’re really talking about is nation-state actors. We’re talking about organized crime rings. We’re talking about using vast amounts of stolen Americans’ identities to monetize them for, you know, criminal activity.

    The problem exploded during the pandemic – when the government rushed trillions of dollars into the economy to help struggling Americans.

    Applications for relief programs moved online, making it easier for people to access aid, but with few safeguards, scammers, hackers and organized crime rings also cashed in.

    In 2020, Miller was appointed to an independent watchdog committee that tracked how COVID relief money was spent.

    Linda Miller: We could tell, right away, it was like, “Oh. Well, that’s all gonna get stolen.”

    Cecilia Vega: You saw it coming?

    Linda Miller: Oh, yeah. I mean, It was like they threw money in the air and just let people run around and grab it. The most egregious part is that a lot of the people who stole that money were foreign adversarial nation states.

    Cecilia Vega: So who are they? Who are you talking about?

    Linda Miller: We’re talking about China. We’re talking about Russia.

    Cecilia Vega: Impersonating Americans, in a lot of cases?

    Linda Miller: Yes. Right.
    ***
    Last year, the FBI unraveled one of the largest digital fraud cases in U.S. history, in which cyber criminals from around the world used stolen identities to pocket $6 billion in pandemic unemployment funds.

    When a disaster happens, the professional fraudsters swing into action:

    Cecilia Vega: What are the hot spots for fraud, right now?

    Linda Miller: Disaster funding–is a really big issue. When a disaster happens in the country, the fraud actors see where it’s coming. They look at the zip codes. And they begin buying stolen identities, so that they can begin applying for disaster loans, disaster grants, on behalf of stolen identities.

    Apparently you can buy the identity of pretty much any American for a nominal sum.

    Our government has reached a state of impotent ossification where it is doubtful whether it has the will, let alone the capacity, to resist being pillaged by hostile actors and criminal gangs. And, to compound the problem, one of our two major political parties never wants to cut any spending, under any circumstances. The fact that a large percentage of government spending goes to fraudsters is of zero concern.

    Minnesota, where I live, is a case in point. Minnesota is probably the most corrupt state in the union. The American Experiment Scandal Tracker stands at over $611 million, just since the beginning of the Tim Walz administration. That isn’t the wasteful spending that the government indulges in every day, that is 27 specific criminal frauds. One of them is Feeding Our Future, in which probably $500 million in federal tax money was stolen from a program administered by the state’s Department of Education (only the $250 million that has been criminally prosecuted to date is included in the Tracker’s total).

    In response to this awful record, there is a proposal to create an Office of Inspector General, that would be charged with monitoring state spending and taking legal action in cases of fraud. Polling shows that 72% of Minnesotans support that proposal, but it couldn’t get through our legislature. Why? Because the Democrats wouldn’t vote for it. The brutal reality is that the Democratic Party doesn’t mind fraud, and might even be in favor of it. As long as that remains true, nothing is going to change.

  • SourcesSources Member, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 4,285 Founders Club
    edited June 6

    DEI officials, initiatives, and celebrations; fare ambassadors on LINK; and feckless homelessness solutions

    On the other hand, at the city level, all those new Seattle taxes (that are not-income in name only) are doing a great job of pushing every high earner out of the city

  • RaceBannonRaceBannon Member, Moderator, Swaye's Wigwam Posts: 111,557 Founders Club

    Newsom gave more unemployment money to prisoners than to unemployed people

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