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LATEST BLOGS

Due to public outrage over a 2600% fee increase, Spokane City Council reverses its decision, for now.
By MARK HARMSWORTH  | 
Mar 28, 2023

On Monday March 13, the Spokane City Council passed a series of fee increases on new housing construction, including a water connection fee increase on multi-family units from $18,000 to $470,000. Now it seems, due to public outrage at the massive fee increases, the council has, at least temporarily, reversed its position and reduced the amount of the increases until early 2024.

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The climate math on electric ferries doesn't add up
By TODD MYERS  | 
Mar 27, 2023

A recent graphic from the group Clean & Prosperous Washington (CPW) illustrates the strange math of climate policy in Washington state – where taxes are counted as savings and the costs of climate policies outweigh the environmental benefits. These sorts of accounting games end up doing more environmental harm because they skew the analysis toward expenditures that yield few (if any) environmental benefits, undermining the already wasteful low-carbon fuel standard to make electric ferries appear feasible.

The graphic claims to tabulate the costs and benefits of purchasing electric ferries to replace the existing diesel ferries. The proposal has hit the rocks because of the extremely high cost, and the legislature is looking to remove the requirement that ferries be built in Washington to try to bring the price down.

CPW released this graphic claiming that even expensive electric ferries would create more benefits than costs. Several things stand out, but I’ll focus on a few elements that are particularly enlightening.

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Washington versus the world on capital gains income taxes
By JASON MERCIER  | 
Mar 25, 2023

If you were curious about the tax treatment of capital gains income and took a globe of the planet and randomly placed your finger after spinning it, you would hear the same thing: A capital gains tax is an income tax. You could repeat this exercise over and over and the results would be the same unless your finger landed on Washington state. Thanks to a 7-2 decision by our state Supreme Court, Washington now stands alone on the planet claiming a capital gains tax isn’t an income tax.

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