u/LOOKITSADAM

The Maple Valley City Council voted Monday night to scrap a tax incentive program intended to encourage the production of affordable housing, following a cavalcade of public opposition to the proposal over the past few weeks. According to analysis conducted by the City of Maple Valley, the average impact to a homeowner with a median-value home from the "tax shift" is expected to be around $50 per year, assuming robust participation rates in the program.

"I didn't move to Maple Valley 'til 10 years ago. I couldn't afford it, and so the deal is, we shouldn't have to pay for the people who can't afford it... If they can't afford to live here, they don't get to live here," a Maple Valley resident told the Council Monday night.

~ The state told them they have to plan for affordable housing. The council voted no anyway.

Inspectors from the state Department of Health (DOH) have been turned away from the facility on 10 separate occasions, in spite of state law giving them the legal right to enter. Inspectors were responding to more than 3,500 complaints filed about conditions within the facility in the last three years.

Two people have died at the Tacoma facility since 2024, and six people have tried to commit suicide.

~ The new $69 million contract writes the standards down and writes GEO Group out of legal liability. Oversight wasn't broken here. It was negotiated away.

Board members voted against renewing the $103,000 contract for another year by a vote of 4-1. At Monday's board meeting, about 11 students and 20 adults spoke in favor of the school resource officer program at Bothell High School. No one spoke against the program.

In a 2024 survey of Bothell High School community members, 77% of students either agreed or strongly agreed that the school resource officer program promotes student safety.

~ Their own survey said 77% support. They voted to end it 4-1.

Wilson was apparently unhappy with some of the amendments councilmembers proposed and wanted the council to change them. ... the council passed the legislation, which Wilson had asked to be expedited as an "emergency" bill, with the (relatively minor) amendments intact.

Just yesterday, Councilmember Bob Kettle took up that torch again during a discussion about a proposed one-year moratorium on data centers, saying, "We had top notch leadership with Seattle City Light, and this is a failure of our city right now."

~ Send the council an "emergency" bill, then try to pull it the day before the vote because you don't like the amendments. That's not how coequal branches work.

While the state set aside another $2.5 million for recovery, as of mid-April it had distributed only $154,000 of it. In King County, more than 513 people applied for some of that cash. So far, 13 have been approved for a total of $9,262.

The state sent out $1 million for emergency needs, split between more than 2,600 households. If everyone received an equal share, that's about $384 per home.

~ Five months after the floods, 6% of the recovery fund out the door. The money exists. The urgency doesn't.

"If there's ever a moment for us to revisit how we draw these congressional lines in Washington, this is that moment," Fitzgibbon added. "We have some significant barriers to clear before we can engage in that."

Democrats now hold eight of Washington's 10 seats in the U.S. House. Only one of those districts, the 3rd, in southwest Washington, has been a consistent battleground for Democrats and Republicans in recent years.

~ The bipartisan commission held for 20 years. Now national meddling has finally made it clear there's nothing to gain by playing fair.

Five seats are on the ballot, and the fate of the Democratic-backed income tax on millionaire earners is expected to rest in the justices' hands.

Justices Colleen Melody and Theo Angelis, both appointed by Gov. Bob Ferguson, will face multiple challenges to retain their seats.

~ Five seats, one tax case. The ballot you skip is the one that decides.

Nineteen percent rode yesterday, 16% last week, 22% in the last month, 14% in the last six months, 7% in the last year, 14% longer than a year and 10% haven't yet ridden transit in their service area.

The Nondrivers Alliance believes it's important for people who guide our transit agencies to be regular transit users.

~ The people setting transit policy should be people who use transit.

The high parking ratio allows Simon to include a reserved parking stall with each apartment, the cost of which is baked into the rent. Travis said the initial policy is not to allow tenants to sublease their reserved parking stalls or get a discount for forgoing them, which would allow tenants without cars to recuperate the cost of parking hidden within their rent.

The efficiencies start at $2,200, but the one-bedrooms start at $2,800, and the three-bedroom units at $4,800.

~ Built next door to a light rail station and still betting on cars. The 2018 parking unbundling rule was supposed to stop exactly this and developers know it never grew teeth.

With the Somers proposal, Sound Transit expects to get to 92% of the 650,000 additional daily transit riders that had been projected with the full ST3 buildout, but only serve 77% of the zero-vehicle households that would have seen a rail station built near them under ST3.

Thanks to cost-saving measures already unearthed by Sound Transit's capital team, and some revenue levers that the agency has been able to pull, the much-publicized $34.5 billion gap through 2046 has been reduced to a $13 billion gap in the capital program, with the horizon of the financial plan now stretching to 2052.

~ 92 percent of the new riders, 77 percent of the households without cars. Voters approved this package in 2016, and the people who most need rail are the ones getting deferred indefinitely.

For more than 30 years, Seattle Children's Hospital has abided by a voluntary agreement with the Laurelhurst Community Council (LCC) and the city to restrict which medevac helicopter flights carrying sick children can land directly at the hospital to the most serious cases.

A Stranger report this week showcased how, starting during the pandemic, the LCC had attempted to further reduce flights due to the noise and personal disruption it caused them.

~ Three decades restricting medevac flights for sick kids. Took one Reddit post to fold.

All 98 seats in the state House and 24 of 49 state Senate seats are up for grabs in 2026.

Democrats currently hold a 59-39 majority in the state House and 30-19 in the Senate. In the House, there are 14 open seats as representatives retire or run for other offices, such as the Senate, where five members are not returning.

~ If you sit out the August 4 primary, you don't really get to pick in November.

Eyman said recent polling on the tax showed that only 33% of voters would repeal the tax if an initiative was brought against it this November, according to The Seattle Times.

Heywood said his group has done further polling about the language of how a repeal initiative is structured. He said his polling has found that while voters support the tax if it highlights taxing the rich, 60% of voters will uphold the law.

~ Their own polling says they lose. He's spending the money anyway.

The proposal attempts to close a $34.5 billion budget shortfall by focusing on the "spine" of the system, from Everett to Tacoma, while putting off major projects in Seattle that helped the Sound Transit 3 plan pass overwhelmingly here, most notably including the segment from downtown to Ballard.

It's now designated as a "regional center" in the city's comprehensive plan, the densest possible designation, and is slated for another upzone later this year.

~ Voters approved this in 2016. Ballard's been upzoned three times since. The line with the highest projected ridership is the one they cut first.

At SEA Airport, retailers can charge up to 10% more for items compared to similar items outside the airport. A two-ounce bottle of Purrell Hand Sanitizer purchased at Hudson, for example, cost $4.99 at SEA. That is 151% higher than the same size bottle at Target in Tukwila.

A travel-sized pack of Tylenol with six pills costs $5.49 at Hudson, 121% higher than a pack of ten pills at Target, priced at $2.49.

~ A 10% cap and a 151% markup can't both be enforced. Apparently only one is.

Sound Transit has a projected $34.5 billion budget shortfall. If approved, the plan would see the light rail connections to Everett and Tacoma completed, along with the new line to West Seattle. But it would defer the light rail connection to Ballard until more money is identified, cutting the light rail short at Seattle Center instead of Ballard's Market Street as originally planned.

A decade ago, voters approved the agency's plan to build out the region's light rail system to reach Ballard, West Seattle, Issaquah, Everett and Tacoma.

~ Voted on, paid for, deferred. Again.

Visit Seattle revised its economic impact for the 2026 FIFA World Cup, from $929 million down to $845 million.

Despite more than 5 million tickets sold, demand has yet to translate into strong hotel occupancy, the American Hotel & Lodging Association said in its April 2026 outlook.

~ The economic boost was sold up front. The bookings are coming in late, if at all.

Compared with last year, that's a decrease of almost 13%, according to a new report published by the state exchange. "This is the sharpest drop we've seen since the exchange was established," said Tara Lee, chief communications officer for the Washington Health Benefit Exchange.

Enhanced premium tax credits helped enrollees save $1,330 per year in premiums on average, according to the state health exchange. The number was even higher for older adults between 55 and 64, who saved an estimated $1,910 per year.

~ Subsidies expired in DC. People lost coverage in WA. That's a policy choice.