In The News | Change Washington

HB 2266 will remove local control and allow drug-filled housing projects into your neighborhood

Warning – Seattle style emergency housing projects could be coming to your community if HB 2266 passes the legislature. Progressive special interest groups are hoping to sneak through last-minute legislation that will allow Seattle’s public housing organizations to ignore local zoning restrictions to operate drug-filled emergency housing facilities anywhere in the state. The Discovery Institute’s...

“The first step is admitting you have a problem.”

In the past two weeks, two progressive political figures and long-term advocates for Housing First homelessness policies have publicly admitted that the strategy has failed to meet its goals. This fact has been widely accepted by less partisan analysts for many years as homelessness continues to rise nationwide (especially in progressive cities) and has increased...

Major Questions Loom over Democrat Leader Appearing Drunk at Hearing

On Wednesday, February 25 at 5:30 PM, Rep Joe Fitzgibbon, Democrat House Leader, appeared drunk at the House Appropriations Committee hearing. Rep. Fitzgibbon, who normally wears a jacket and tie, appeared disheveled in an open-collared white dress shirt. At times, he appeared to doze off and Representative Larry Springer, who sat next to Fitzgibbon, can...

Extremist protestors/rioters cause damage, they go free while taxpayers pay the bill

Two rulings this week demonstrate how the discrimination and bias of our political leaders is costing taxpayers a lot of money. A King County jury awarded the father of Antonio Mays Jr. $30 million because the City of Seattle was negligent in allowing extremists to take over many blocks of Capital Hill during the 2020...

Faulty numbers reveal big problems with Ferguson’ DOE (and The Seattle Times)

The week before last Thanksgiving, the Washington State Department of Ecology (DOE) released a report touting that its controversial and expensive Climate Commitment Act (i.e. the CCA or the “carbon tax” which has increased the price for a gallon of gas by approximately 50 cents in our state) had removed 7.5 metric tons of greenhouse...

Progressives’ policies provide gloomy future for our region

There are two disturbing charts which show how progressive policies are hurting the average residential taxpayer. Four years since the end of the pandemic and Downtown Seattle’s vacancy rate has risen to over 33% – 1/3 of space available is empty. No new development being built. Businesses closing, moving to the Eastside (or out of...

The Price of Silence

When is the last time you visited downtown Seattle? Or Portland? Or San Francisco? Are these places the towns you once vacationed to and felt safe site seeing? Nearly thirteen years ago, I prayed for death as I wandered the streets of Tacoma in the middle of the night—no place to go, no belongings, everything...

Thank you to We Heart Seattle for five years of making a real difference

Time to acknowledge something positive in Seattle… Those of us at ChangeWA celebrate the five-year anniversary of We Heart Seattle! When Seattle progressives’ public safety, drug, and homeless policies were causing the rapid decline of the city in 2020, Andrea Saurez and a small group of like-minded friends went into action. At first, they cleaned...

THANK YOU SLADE GORTON!

As our region enjoys the success of the Seattle Mariners, let’s take a moment to thank former Washington State Attorney General and U.S. Senator Slade Gorton for all that he did to bring the team to the Pacific Northwest and then lead the effort to keep them here when the team threatened to move to...

Why do those on the Left hate citizen initiatives?

Here in Washington State we have seen many examples of the Democrats (and their wealthy special interest friends) attacking the initiative process. This has included: Supporting legislation to weaken the initiative process Spending tens of millions to defeat citizen initiatives Recklessly adding “emergency” clauses to controversial bills which prohibit initiatives Hire expensive law firms to...

Washington residents strongly support more focus on treatment for homeless

A new poll finds that Washington State residents overwhelmingly support the Trump Administration’s efforts to encourage treatment-based solutions (for both drug/alcohol addiction and mental illness) to battle the homelessness crises. Moreover, a large majority of Washington voters believe that current homelessness programs that DO NOT address addiction and mental health issues should be closed down....

Seattle’s absurd giveaway proposal for drug addicts

Budgets demonstrate values and priorities and a majority on the Seattle City Council just sent a clear message that the police don’t matter. The recently approved 2023 budget eliminated 80 unfilled police officer positions with no provisions for restaffing the severely depleted police department. But here’s what the City Council might decide is both...

Western State Hospital has become Arkham Asylum – if the Joker ran it

A recent expose by The Tacoma News Tribune of the state’s largest mental health facility is not only perhaps one of the most glaring examples of the inmates literally running the asylum as you’ll ever get, but it’s also a vivid example of how failings within the state’s mental health system is driving much of...

Why we are thankful

With Thanksgiving this week it’s a good opportunity to take time to discuss what we at Change Washington are thankful for. Our heartfelt thanks go to those who financially support Change Washington. Your contributions allow us to continue tracking and monitoring public policies in Seattle and King County that affect you and others throughout our...