The incompetence and mismanagement of taxpayer dollars and government programs, be it Covid, voting, or over staffing continue to waste taxpayer dollars while never resolving any major issue facing the country.
1)Most recently we have been talking about the failing city of Seattle in the context of the “Race To Bankruptcy Court” as the politicians in the city hollow out their tax base with stupid programs. These programs drive businesses and residents out of the city. However, let’s look at some recent political class insanity from the city’s hisotry in today’s discussion:
According to Fox 13, taxes in Seattle have grown five times faster than the population in the past 13 years or so.
City taxes grew from $900 million in 2013 to $2.8 million in 2026, a threefold increase.
That threefold increase compares unfavorably to a 50% inflation rate over that time period.
This info comes from an analysis by ECONorthwest.
Their report found that while taxes tripled since 2013 the population grew only 31% and employment grew by 23% meaning that remaining residents and businesses were paying much more in taxes than previously.
City businesses now pay 68% of the city taxes with most of the tax burden falling on only 20 companies who pay almost $360 million a year.
This 68% is up from 55% in 2016.
On a dollar basis, business taxes in the city were 2.18 times higher in 2026 compared to 2018 while non-business taxes were only 1.32 times higher, i.e. the city placed a heavier and heavier emphasis on business taxation.
As a result of the higher and higher tax burden on businesses, the city has lost 24,000 taxpaying jobs since 2020.
The fleeing of businesses out of the city has caused business/commercial buildings to lose about 50% of their assessed value over the past five years with about 35% of the downtown business office space sitting vacant.
The report goes into much more detail than this summary but you get the idea: politicians implemented new taxes which have driven businesses, employees, and residents out of town. This has decreased the size of the tax base and put pressure on the remaining residents and business from a tax perspective. Since a lot of the tax-collection volume comes from a small base of companies, if even a few of those companies pull up stakes and move out of town, the down size tax implications are huge.
Looking forward, an onerous and growing tax burden on businesses will repel future businesses from coming into the city when they can go elsewhere, both locally and further away to avoid the ever increasing Seattle city business taxes. And that is how a city goes into a financial death and eventually bankruptcy. And why we continue to bet that Seattle will be the next major city to go bankrupt.
2)While sliding down the financial death spiral, Seattle government officials and politicians continue to make idiotic decisions:
Apparently Lam’s is a grocery store operation in Seattle.
The business had received $1.7 million from the city government as a result of Mayor Kate Wilson’s grocery support program.
The program is supposed to give taxpayer money to city grocers to help them thrive and serve Seattle communities.
Lam’s Seafood Asian Market received the money to help pay for repairs after break-ins and other improvements according to a city’s announcement hyping the program.
And then fraud buster, Nick Shirley showed up.
In a Shirley video, a woman allegedly offers $60 in cash in exchange for a $120 food stamp/SNAP card, in other words, food stamp/SNAP money laundering.
The woman then brings Shirley inside the store where the cashier allegedly rings up a can of spam and a small sushi package for $120 dollars.
The transaction never got consummated in order that Shirley not get involved in the money laundering but outside the store he confronted the woman on video, “You’re committing food stamp fraud. It’s against the law.”
The woman responded on the video with “I know, yeah.”
Lam’s denied any wrong doing and is still considered innocent until proven guilty if this matter ever gets law enforcement attention.
However it is not the first time that the store came under suspicion of food stamp laundering, having been investigated by law enforcement in 2025.
Maybe this is the lone exception of food stamp-fraud in the program and the city, one bad apple. But given the fraud we have discussed extensively over the past several months both in Seattle and beyond, it is highly likely that Lam’s, if guilty, is not the only fraud operating draining Seattle taxpayer funds.
3)David Crowley is running for governor in Wisconsin. He used to be in charge of Milwaukee county in the state of Wisconsin. Good for him. But apparently according, to some news reports, there has been some alleged nepotism with taxpayer dollars in his family in the past:
A nonprofit up in Wisconsin called Community Advocates (ERA2) received taxpayer funding via Milwaukee’s Emergency Rental Assistance program.
Which seems legit, and it may be, but it gets dicey when we find out that when receiving the funding Mr. Crowley’s wife was an employee of the nonprofit.
And the money that went from the taxpayers through the Crowley county administration is not small, totaling more than $65 million since June, 2020.
His wife, Erica Crowley, started working at the non-profit in, wait for it, 2020
She was later promoted to director at the non-profit.
ERA2 claims that Crowley “did not influence the decision making process for the ERA2 funding.”
As we have said many times, the appearance of conflict of interest is just as bad as actual conflict of interest: husband oversees a government entity, money approved by the husband goes to an NGO that just happens to have the husband’s wife on the payroll who just happens to eventually get promoted to director. Nothing to see here, move on.
4)Far too many times in this blog we have had to point out how illegal immigrants allowed to enter this country by the millions have led to the deaths of American citizens:
Laken Riley, nursing student, abducted, beaten, raped and killed by an illegal immigrant when she went out for an afternoon jog.
Mother Rachel Morin, abducted, beaten raped and killed by an illegal immigrant wen she went out for an afternoon walk.
Twelve year old Jocelyn Nungaray, abducted, beaten, raped and killed by two illegal immigrants.
We could go on and on but you get the idea: Biden’s immigration policies allowed thousands of American innocent citizens to be killeed, raped, robbed, and their lives ended up seriously damaged in one way or another.
And now we have some new insights on why so many Americans’s lives were negatively affected:
During the Biden administration only 8 illegal immigrants were arrested for visa overstays out of the estimated 3.1 MILLION overstays that existed during his term.
This was a finding of the Department of Homeland Security inspector general audit.
Out of the 3.1 million overstays, only 496 were investigated and only the eight were arrested.
Millions of leads came into the Biden administration regarding illegal immigrants overstaying their visa but obviously the Biden administration took little action to follow up on the lawbreakers.
Some of those that overstayed their visas but were ignored by the Biden administration went on to commit crimes against American citizens according to the inspector general findings: “The degree of the Biden Administration’s dereliction of duty, which needlessly put American lives at risk, is staggering and enraging,” DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin said.
Another example where politicians in this country cared more about illegal immigrants than the American citizens they were supposed to serve and protect and the immigration laws they were supposed to enforce.
Enough insanity for today: Biden ignored the lawbreakers, potential major conflict of interest in Wisconsin, alleged food stamp fraud in Seattle, and Seattle politicians continue to commit financial suicide.
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If you agree that we need to deseat every member of Congress for their lack of success and accomplishment, then please consider going to the following petition link to help the cause:
https://www.change.org/p/deseat-congress-reset-freedom
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