I have one addendum to yesterday’s post “Have You Voted Yet?” concerning the City of Spokane Levy and the Spokesman’s “Editorial Board” opposition to it. Stacey Cowles, the only remaining member of said Editorial Board referenced data from the Washington Policy Center to suggest we pay our police and firefighters too much, supposedly more than comparable communities. To Mr. Cowles it followed that the City Council ought to do more homework and cut costs, not propose an increase in property tax. Mr. Cowles offered no cost saving measure (other than the implied suggestion of cutting salaries) nor did he offer any substantive critique of the programs and positions to be funded with levy money.
But there is more:
The Washington Policy Center is the Koch-donor group supported non-profit “think tank” in Washington state. In 2017 the WPC threw a fancy fundraising dinner at the Davenport Grand with Nigel Farage, “Mr. Brexit,” as the featured guest speaker and most of the Spokane GOP in attendance. You can read more about that here. The WPC is also a major provider of McMorris Rodgers’ policy positions, something I learned firsthand during her attempted repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Read Constituent Biopsy by the Washington Policy Center fob CMR.
If you visit the Washington Policy Center’s website you will note thirty-five names on their Board of Directors, most of them from the west side of the state. There are two from Spokane, Heidi Stanley of Empire Bolt and Screw and Anne Cowles, Stacey Cowles’ wife. Ms. Stanley and Ms. Cowles also sit on the “Eastern Washington Advisory Council” of the Washington Policy Center. No other Spokane residents are both on the Board and the Council.
One of my readers reminded me of this connection, writing: “What he [Stacey Cowles] doesn’t say is that his wife, Anne Cowles, is on the Washington Policy Center board. For an S-R reporter, it would be a huge conflict of interest to cite a source where a relative has a powerful position. How does he get away with not disclosing this?”
Mr. Cowles disparagement of the levy deserves to be ignored. Vote yes.
Back next week.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry