Investigations, analysis, and editorial connecting findings to policy.
A union turns public dollars into political power and political power back into public dollars, and each turn spins it faster. For eight years the wheel idled; then in 2024 it threw off $17.8 million in a single cycle to crush Initiative 2124. The SEIU 775 machine, traced across twenty-four years and three branches of government.
Washington's #1 political contributor for the last decade isn't Microsoft, Amazon, or Boeing. It's a home care workers' union, and it's not even close. How SEIU 775 deploys ~$30 million in net political spending, funds 175 candidates per cycle, and places two key legislators at the controls of its full legislative pipeline.
A state payroll tax, a workforce, an automatic dues stream, and a $13 million campaign to defend the whole arrangement. How WA Cares funds its own political defense.
A new Seattle progressive media outlet was founded in March 2025 at the headquarters of Washington's dominant Democratic consulting firm by the firm principal's wife. None of those relationships has ever been disclosed to its readers.
Seattle's JumpStart payroll tax was enacted in 2020 as dedicated revenue for housing, climate, equity, and small business. Six years and $1.5 billion later, the dedications have been converted to suggestions and most of the money is filling the general fund.
Seattle voters have approved property tax levies that will collect $570 million in 2026, more than four times what they collected in 2014. The library levy on the August ballot pushes the city toward a state-mandated cap.
Ron Davis's GeekWire op-ed calls Washington's tax burden a myth and asks for evidence over vibes. The data is largely accurate; the framing is not. Five framing choices, the ITEP methodology beneath them, and what the legislature could actually do to reduce regressivity.
Moody's revised Washington's outlook from stable to negative. The diagnosis is structural: spending outpacing revenue, reserves nearly depleted, and a tax the legislature is budgeting around while it sits in court.
Two funding windfalls, one institutional pattern: how Washington school districts converted temporary money into permanent obligations.
A forensic audit found $533.9 million in public funds passed through the King County Regional Homelessness Authority. The deeper finding is that the agency could not reliably trace any of it.