Tag: taxes

High Taxes Are Turning Seattle Into a Ghost Town Full of Empty Office Buildings – And it’s About to Get Worse

The far-left blue city of Seattle is bleeding businesses as companies flee to locations that don’t charge crazy levels of taxes. As a result, the percentage of empty office buildings in the city has risen to more than a third. That is unbelievable.

And yet, the people who live there just keep voting for leftist political leaders who only make the problem worse. Mayors are supposed to try to attract businesses to their cities, not cause them to run away to other locations.

As technology allows more and more companies to have remote employees, the competition among cities is only going to become more fierce.

From My Northwest via MSN:

Seattle’s downtown office market is facing one of the steepest declines in the nation.

According to a new CoStar analysis, Seattle leads the country in falling office rents, with vacancies hitting record highs. Experts warn the slump could reshape Seattle’s commercial real estate, cutting into property values and city tax revenues while raising questions about the future of downtown.

“Though the amount of space available to lease has leveled off latelydue to planned demolitions and conversions removing someproperties from the market, the region’s vacancy rate continues torise more quickly than that of the rest of the country,” the analysis found. “Seattle’s officevacancy rate stands at 17.3% and is projected to peak at 18.3% in 2026.”

According to the study, the steepest drops in office space usage occurred in Seattle’s downtown, Belltown, and Queen Anne neighborhoods. Some suburban locations managed flat-to-slightly positive rent growth, but this growth has done little to offset the broader downward trend.

But the study also believes office vacancies throughout Seattle can improve over time.

“The leveling off of availability signals a likely improvement in vacancy rates in the near future,” the study shared.

Things are not likely to improve. In fact, it could get much worse. Watch below as Glenn Beck talks about how Seattle now wants to tax the owners of empty office buildings for the crime of being empty.

If they actually do this, it will make the problem far worse.

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Insanity: Newsom’s California Blows OVER $100 MILLION on a ‘Butterfly and Cougar’ Bridge With No End in Sight – Project Director Blames Trump and the Weather

While waste and California go together like peanut butter and jelly, even this latest example will blow your mind.

City Journal’s Chris Rufo broke an explosive story on Wednesday, revealing how Gavin Newsom’s California somehow spent $114 million on the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing (WAWC) over the course of four years. The crossing features an overpass for animals atop ten lanes of the 101 Freeway in Agoura Hills.

The stated goal of the project was to reduce wildlife-vehicle collisions by providing safe passage to the animals. The species that were supposed to benefit included the endangered cougars in the area and the monarch butterflies.

During a ceremony announcing the project, Newsom boasted that the state would provide $54 million in funding to complete the crossing. It was supposed to cost $92 million in total, with the remaining funding from private philanthropists.

Officials projected the Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing would open in 2025, but now it is over $20 million over budget with no finish in sight. And you can thank good old-fashioned political corruption for it, along with the person in charge of the project, a loony cougar-sweater-wearing ‘environmentalist’ named Beth Pratt, who serves on WAWC’s Partner Leadership Team.

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Something Just Happened in Minnesota That Completely Altered My View of Reality

Minnesota’s Housing Stabilization Services (HSS), signed into law by then-Gov. Mark Dayton (Fricken Commie Labor-Dem) in 2017, came into effect in 2020 under Gov. Tim “Jazz Hands” Walz (Fricken Commie Labor-Dem). The three-year implementation wait was due to the need for federal approval “via a state plan amendment under the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services,” as my paid LLM research assistant put it.

Stick a pin in that part about federal funding. It becomes important in just a few short paragraphs. 

Anyway, HSS was one of those innocuous-sounding and ostensibly well-meaning programs purportedly meant to, as the Minnesota Prairie County Alliance put it, “help people with disabilities, including mental illness and substance use disorder, and seniors find and keep housing.”

But before we get to the juicy meat of the story, also tuck away in the back of your brain that I felt the names “innocuous-sounding,” “ostensibly well-meaning,” and “purportedly” before even getting to the substance of the program. 

“KARE 11 Investigates began publishing reports on Housing Stabilization Services last spring,” the local station reported Monday, “ultimately uncovering widespread fraud that included questionable billing, bribes, falsifying of records, and even billing for dead clients.” 

“Internal emails, fraud referrals, and county investigative reports obtained by KARE 11 now reveal a pattern of ignored alarms that left vulnerable Minnesotans waiting for help that never came while the state’s costs skyrocketed.”

CBS News has the shocking numbers: “When HSS launched in 2020, the estimated cost was about $2.5 million a year. But by 2024, it ballooned to over $100 million.” This year’s projected cost: $125 million.

Number of needy people actually provided with housing: [Shrug Emoji].

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Investigative Journalist Nick Shirley Releases Video Uncovering $170 Million in Fraud in California

Investigative journalist Nick Shirley released his latest video on Monday, uncovering $170 million in fraud in California.

And this is just the tip of the iceberg in Democrat-run California.

“We uncovered over $170,000,000 in fraud as these fraudsters live in luxury with no consequences,” Nick Shirley said.

“California’s version of Medicaid called ‘Medi-Cal’ has more than doubled since 2022 from $108 billion to a proposed $222 billion in 2026. Their population, however, has not grown exponentially. However, their spending has,” Nick Shirley said.

“There has been a 1,000 percent increase in hospice care in Los Angeles County,” Nick Shirley said. It’s estimated that the fraud in California could be in the hundreds of billions of dollars.”

Nick Shirley visited ‘hospices’ in Los Angeles and ‘daycares’ in San Diego.

The Somali ‘daycare’ owner/operator screamed at Nick Shirley and called the police after he asked her why there weren’t any children in the facility.

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Kayleigh McEnany Lays Out the Money Trail — Obama and Biden Showered Iran With Billions While Tehran Built Its Nuclear Program

The Left and their media allies want Americans to forget how the Iranian regime was empowered in the first place.

But former White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany recently walked viewers through the timeline, and the receipts, showing how the Obama-Biden foreign policy machine sent billions to the world’s leading state sponsor of terrorism.

McEnany recently walked viewers through what she described as a troubling financial trail that began with the Obama administration’s controversial nuclear agreement with Iran, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.

McEnany’s breakdown begins with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, where Barack Obama promised Americans that sanctions relief would not strengthen the radical regime in Tehran.

Speaking in 2015 while defending the deal, Obama acknowledged that Iran would gain access to tens of billions of dollars in previously frozen assets.

“It is true that if Iran lives up to its commitments, it will gain access to roughly $56 billion of its own money, revenue frozen overseas by other countries,” Obama said at the time.

“Our best analysts expect the bulk of this revenue to go into spending that improves the economy and benefits the lives of the Iranian people.”

But the controversy only intensified a year later.

In January 2016, the Obama administration secretly airlifted $400 million in cash to Iran, reportedly delivered in pallets of foreign currency. The transfer happened the same day Iran released several detained Americans, raising immediate questions about whether the payment functioned as leverage or ransom.

CNN itself acknowledged the timing sparked outrage and speculation that the payment and hostage release were linked.

At the time, administration officials denied any quid pro quo.

The story did not end with the $400 million.

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Trump announces $10B U.S. investment in Board of Peace to rebuild Gaza

President Donald Trump said the United States will contribute $10 billion to the Board of Peace — an international organization he launched in January to help rebuild the Gaza Strip and secure peace in other conflict zones.

At the board’s first meeting in Washington on Thursday, he said other member countries will contribute billions more and send soldiers for Palestinian security.

“The Board of Peace is showing how a better future can be built starting right here,” Trump said at the meeting attended by 17 world leaders who are part of the board, as well as Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and U.S. Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff.  

“We will help Gaza,” Trump said. “We will straighten it out. We will make it successful. We will make it peaceful. And we will do that in other spots. The Board of Peace is going to lead the way in Gaza.”

In addition to the U.S., seven other countries, including Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, the United Arab Emirates, Morocco and Saudi Arabia, have contributed more than $7 billion to help the Gaza relief effort, Trump announced. The United Nations Office of Humanitarian Assistance is raising $2 billion to support Gaza, and FIFA plans to raise $75 million and to bring World Cup soccer stars to the war-torn territory, he said.

An estimated $70 billion is reportedly needed to rebuild the Palestinian territory decimated after two years of war with Israel.

Approved by the United Nations Security Council last year, the Board of Peace was initiated as part of Trump’s 20-point peace plan to end the conflict in Gaza, starting with a ceasefire that began in October. The second stage of the plan, focused on demilitarization and reconstruction, was announced in January.

During Thursday’s meeting, Albania, Indonesia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo and Morocco committed to creating an armed International Stabilization Force to keep security and ensure the disarming of the militant Hamas group, a key demand of Israel and a cornerstone of the ceasefire deal. Egypt and Jordan committed to training a police force, U.S. Maj. Gen. Jasper Jeffers, commander of the Gaza International Stabilization Force, said Thursday.

Jeffers said a team of U.S. military experts is already on the ground in Gaza preparing the infrastructure for ISF headquarters to oversee five sectors in Gaza, each of which will receive a brigade of troops. The long-term goal is to have 12,000 police and 20,000 ISF soldiers, he said, starting with Rafah — the border crossing at the southern end of the 140-square-mile coastal territory.

“This is a vision of Gaza as part of the Middle East at peace,” former British Prime Minister Tony Blair said at the meeting.

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Vermont Senate Committee Approves Bill to Cut Marijuana Tax, Double Purchase Limits and Allow Events and Deliveries

A Vermont Senate committee has unanimously approved a bill that would make changes to the state’s marijuana laws, including reducing the excise tax, expanding possession and purchase limits, and allowing cannabis events and deliveries.

The Committee on Economic Development, Housing and General Affairs voted 5 to 0 to send Senate Bill 278 to the full Senate after adopting a revised version of the proposal. The bill was originally filed by a bipartisan group of lawmakers as a measure to expand marijuana sales and make Vermont’s regulated market more competitive.

Under the amended version, the bill would cut Vermont’s marijuana excise tax from 14% to 10%. It would also double the retail transaction and personal possession limits, allowing adults 21 and older to buy and possess up to two ounces of marijuana or its equivalent in a single sale. It would also increase the legal possession limit for cannabis concentrates from 5 grams to 10 grams.

Another notable change in the amended bill is a higher THC cap for cannabis products. The proposal would increase the limit for a single package from 100 milligrams to 200 milligrams of THC.

The measure would also create new event and delivery permits, though in a more limited way than the original version may have suggested (the committee amended the bill before giving it approval). The Cannabis Control Board would be allowed to issue up to 10 public event permits and 10 private event permits per year, with each permit valid for a single event lasting no more than 24 hours. The bill would also authorize up to 15 delivery permits annually for tier 1 cultivators and tier 1 manufacturers. Both the event and delivery permit sections would be repealed on July 1, 2028, making them temporary pilot-style programs unless lawmakers act again.

The amended bill would also prevent municipalities from using ordinances or bylaws to completely prohibit cannabis establishments, although it does not appear to include the earlier concept of requiring local votes in municipalities that have not yet considered whether to allow retailers.

If approved by the full Senate and later enacted into law, most of the bill’s provisions would take effect July 1, 2026.

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The Pacific Northwest’s Anti-Democracy Progressives

Seattle, which is home to Amazon and Microsoft, currently employs some 193,000 well-compensated Washingtonians working in the tech sector. One major reason that Seattle emerged as the first big tech hub outside of California is obvious: It is the only West Coast state with no state income tax. Its state constitution forbids an income tax. High wage workers and entrepreneurs seeking a piece of the relatively laid back, outdoors-focused Pacific Northwest lifestyle can move to Washington without taking a state-mandated pay cut.

For the progressive Democrats who dominate state politics in the Pacific Northwest, money in the pockets of anyone other than the government and its political allies is wasted. To grab more of it, legislative Democrats in Washington are pushing through an income tax in the guise of a “millionaire’s tax” that would levy a 9.9% tax on incomes over $1 million. Just yesterday, as the “millionaire’s tax” neared the finish line in the Washington legislature, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced he and his wife have relocated from Seattle, where they lived for 47 years, to Miami. Florida has neither a state income tax nor a state income tax masquerading as a “millionaire’s tax.”

The constitutionality of the bill rests on progressives’ expectation that the Washington Supreme Court will completely abandon decades of precedent deeming income taxes unconstitutional. The expectation may not be unfounded: Five of nine justices were appointed by Democratic governors. Democrats also voted down an amendment to forbid applying an income tax to lower income levels, signaling the “millionaire’s tax” is likely to become a “thousandaire’s tax” if Democrats get their way.

What makes this proposed tax truly egregious, however, is its attempt to stop voters from having any say in it. The Democrats’ tax bill includes a necessity clause that precludes a voter referendum that could overturn the new income tax. So long as the majority-progressive-appointed state Supreme Court goes along, progressives will have upended 90 years of constitutionally prohibited income taxes while shielding it from a vote of the people.

Additionally, Washington progressives have taken a brazen step to undermine local governance in the state. The state house just passed a bill giving unelected bureaucrats appointed by the governor the power to remove any elected sheriff in the state based on vague guidelines, overriding local voters’ ability to select their own law enforcement. The move is an effort to exert progressive control of sheriffs in rural parts of the state who have questioned unpopular and difficult-to-enforce laws, such as COVID restrictions and gun regulations.

Not to be outdone by its neighbor to the north, Oregon’s progressive governance is also thumbing its nose at the will of the voters. The Beaver State, which has made itself into an economic backwater, has long levied high state income taxes, driving businesses and people who earn money for a living out of state. (The state’s second largest business, the $12 billion Dutch Brothers coffee chain, left the state last year, taking its corporate tax revenue with it.) The state’s economy, always tenuous, is now crumbling. Oregon’s unemployment rate of 5.2% is third worst in the nation, better than only California (5.5%) and New Jersey (5.4%). Layoffs since the beginning of 2025 are comparable to job losses during the Great Recession.

Oregon progressives charge forward undaunted. The Democratic legislative supermajority voted in February to disconnect Oregon’s tax code from the federal code so the state can continue to tax job-creating business investment at the higher rate eschewed by D.C. Republicans’ Big Beautiful Bill. The disconnect will not help attract the investors needed to stabilize Portland’s cratering downtown real estate market, where values, when buyers can be found, are a fraction of what they were five years ago. Investors recently rated Portland as the worst place in the country to invest in real estate other than Hartford, Connecticut. 

Punitive rates of income taxation are not enough for Oregon Democrats. For the past year, they’ve tried to muscle through the largest tax increase in state history. It is a deeply unpopular package consisting of fuel tax increases to pay for more unionized transportation workers and a doubling of the state payroll tax to fund public transportation – even though the state is shedding jobs at an historic rate and such a massive payroll tax will only make things worse.

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‘Where’s the Money?’: California Librarian Questioned on Missing $650,000 Linked to Dolly Parton Initiative

California’s top librarian is accused of failing to produce $650,000 in missing funds linked to a literacy program started by country music star Dolly Parton in east Tennessee in 1995.

State legislators recently pelted Greg Lucas, the leader of the California State Library, with questions about the funds during a budget hearing on education, the New York Post reported on Friday.

The issue is connected to a foundation started by Parton called Imagination Library, which delivers free books to children. The program was set to be statewide in California in 2023, according to WJHL.

The outlet noted Parton created her library in 1995 to provide free books in her home county in east Tennessee.

During the hearing, state Sen. Shannon Grove (R) told Lucas he did not have documentation to show where the money went.

She then asked point blank, “Where’s the money?”

Lucas was appointed to lead the state library in 2014 by former Gov. Jerry Brown, ABC 10 reported.

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