At a post election press conference earlier this week Governor Inslee was asked about his 2012 campaign promise not to ask for tax increases and how that squares with his new calls for tax increases to address the McCleary K-12 funding ruling. When asked what changed since 2012 the Governor said on Wednesday:
The world is a different place. We’ve had a very unique unprecedented event in our state’s history and that is the Washington State Supreme Court has held the state of Washington in contempt of court for its failure to fund education of our state. That is a significant event.
While it is true the Court’s contempt ruling is a recent development the base McCleary ruling was known in 2012. In fact, then candidate Inslee was asked how he planned to balance the budget without tax increases in light of the Court’s McCleary ruling. Here was his answer.
Earlier in that same debate Inslee reiterated that under his 75 point plan tax increases wouldn’t be necessary.
Though 2012 seems like a lifetime ago, then candidate Inslee was on to something, the plan should be to grow the economy not stifle its growth.