Avoid Increased Building Costs

Do you want to avoid increased building costs involved with the “NEW BUILDING CODES”? Then it is imperative that you accomplish the following steps BEFORE OCTOBER 19TH, 2023.

New building codes will be going into effect on October 29, 2023. One of the most dangerous parts of those new codes is the;

…removal of your right to freely choose to use propane as a source of energy and/or heat in your home.

In our community, this edict could easily be a death sentence in the middle of winter. We historically loose electrical power for extended periods of time during sub-zero freezing weather.

Steps

Using the “destroyed property” reduced (form), we will signup to get the tax valuation. See a previous blog article explaining thought on that, 3 -Year-Tax-Break for Disaster Victims
We have already drawn a plot diagram of our land and marked where our “destroyed home” had been and also noted where water, septic and temporary electric are located.
We plan to fill-out demolition permit paperwork at the Spokane County Building Department Office. The cost for half a year long demolition permit has been reduced, from $325 to $25. We don’t need an asbestos permit to file this paperwork, because we can get it later (see #5). This demolition permit can later be changed into a building permit. Again, protection from the new more expensive codes forced in the October 29th edition.
Construction permit paperwork, if we can not get it done in time (submitted before Oct 29th, 2023) we face a, “NO PROPANE” dismal situation.
ASBESTOS TEST? Is there is a mortgage on your home? We are going to check with our Mortgage Company to ask them to pay for the testing. They are required to have asbestos testing in their insurance coverage for each home loan. If they do not have this, then call The Office of the Insurance Commissioner at 800-562-6900 and report them.

Gas Prices

The skyrocketing gas pump prices make it difficult to even consider taking a relaxing scenic drive anymore. During the past couple of weeks, I drove around painting beautiful scenes outside. The smile did not leave my face, and the only downer I felt was at the gas pump. I could not remember when was the last time I went for a drive. American freedoms could soon become a thing of the past. The American Response to the Great Reset

To understand what is behind all of this check out this little booklet, “The American Response to the Great Reset“, written by Charlie Kirk of Turning Point USA. It is a short 39-pager that explains it so it is easy to understand. This is the best-condensed reference I have found on the subject.

With the COVID health crisis announcements of fear 24/7. We switch to an ecology-driven scare tactic by the government.

LIE #1 – Electric Transportation

In order to save our planet we must use “electric/mass-transit” transportation.

Governmental overreach initiates tax hikes on fuels. A basic “strong-arm”, budget-enforced isolation move. “If they can’t afford gas then we can make them quit driving.”

Pros

Less pollution (except when you look at the battery manufacturing & disposal)

Cons

Expensive electrical grid improvements
Expensive initial vehicle purchase
The battery is hazardous materials, with short charge life, costly to replace
Wheels are low mileage, high-cost replacement

This is not possible until we build a grid capable of supporting increased demand and recharging stations across the nation.

LIE #2 – Windmills/Solar Panels/Water

We can save the planet using Wind/Solar/Water alternative energies.

Sounds great until you look at what these alternative systems can supply along with what they require in real life. “We will outlaw fossil fuels and only allow alternate energies to force them to stop using fossil fuels.”

Pros

Wind, solar, and water are renewable sources

Cons

Wind/Solar/Water inadequate or sporadic (weather)
Wind/Solar/Water decreased performance
Wind/Solar/Water parts are rarely recyclable
Windmills are an expensive initial purchase
Wind turbines kill birds
Wind vane high-cost replacement and hazardous materials
Solar panel high-cost replacement and hazardous materials
Water damns affect migrating salmon

Manipulation by lawmakers is a crime, it is a dictatorship. Passing laws without constituent approval, that severely limits travel ability, but have no effect on a politician’s chosen mode of travel is wrong.

It really bugs me when I see the smiling fools in Washington DC hop onto a jet plane, helicopter, or limousine for another vacation or night out that is paid for by our tax dollars. They do not stand at the pump and pay upwards of $5 per gallon for their limo fuel, we pay for that fuel too.

DEADLINE to Appeal

Assessed Value 2024 Tax Notice The DEADLINE to Appeal your property tax valuation to the Board of Appeal is July 3, 2023! Look for your notice in the mail right away. If you fail to meet this deadline, then you will not be able to do a darn thing about the increases that they have decided on. This valuation statement/notice is what they base tax rates on later in the bill, payments you have to make in April and October of 2024.

Do you disagree with the values that the Spokane County Assessor has assigned to your home and property? If the answer to this question is yes, please make it a point to follow through and file an appeal. We will gladly help you get through it.

The appeal process is a handful of paperwork, but it is worth it. Express your concerns to the offices that are making insane cuts into your household budget by raising taxes higher and higher until you can no longer stay current. Our home has done this process last year, and plan to appeal it every year till this trend of unaccountability stops.

Here is a sample response that can be downloaded and used with minor changes to record your own property tax information. It is available in both “Word” “AssessedValue2024TaxExample”
and
“PDF” “AssessedValue2024TaxExample” formats.

If you don’t agree with the increased valuation amounts, please reply to the assessor’s office right away. Then, also to the Board of Equalization…. before it is too late.

Free Speech Police

“The FREE SPEECH POLICE” is what SB1333 will set up. This is the Democrat Legislator, Bill Ramos who introduced the bill. His phone: (360) 786-7852

Washington State politicians want to form a “domestic violent extremism commission” to decide what you can and what you can not say. SHB1333. Please click on this link and contact your representatives. Comment repeatedly, and let them know that we do not want it to pass.

Agreement with these statements brands you as a domestic violent extremist.

Election Fraud
Anti-Critical Race Theory
Anti-Mask and Anti-Vaine
Anti-LGBTQ+
Frustration with election officials, medical professionals, and school board members. Protesting at school board meetings, pride events, and drag queen story hours.

1333 Conspiracy Narrative

SHB1333 The domestic violent extremism commission is established within the office of the attorney general for the purpose of establishing a comprehensive public health and community-based framework for responding to domestic violent extremism. It is the intent of this section to build upon the research and findings of the domestic terrorism study assembled by the state attorney general in 2022.

Research and Findings
of the domestic terrorism study

YouTube HB1333 TVW Testimony, Gray’s Harbor Weekly, this video is a total of 26:26 long. The first speaker is Emily who talks for about 12:05 minutes. I counted at least 25 times that she used the term, “white supremacy”. Try counting yourself. The second speaker was not able to answer a representative question about where “the rest” of her report was after she was done with her PowerPoint presentation.

Bill Ramos, YouTube video is a total of 1:10 long. Violent extremism. Why is it happening, and what can we do to curtail it?…treat it as a public health issue and not just as a criminal act,

Bill Ramos, YouTube video is a total of 3:05 long. He first spends about a minute discussing the importance of processing the medal of Valor faster. Then he explains his misunderstood S1333 bill. A bill to handle Violent Extremism, like mass shootings, and any group that looks to violence as a solution. …make it safer for everyone. Break that cycle of people believing that violence is a solution to a problem. It is not geared to any particular party or group of people…. working toward solutions, not toward violence.

LIE, LIE, LIE!!!!

HOW IMPORTANT IS FREE SPEECH TO YOU?

How important are the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

If SHB 1333 passes, you could easily become a criminal for expressing your point of view. Disagreement is not a crime, and discussing our feelings about unjust conditions should not be something we have to worry about.

1832 – Implementing a per-mile tax

Save the Middle Class Sign

House Bill 1832 – Implementing a per-mile tax charge on vehicle usage of public roadways in Washington. Please click on this link and vote this proposed bill down before 12:30 pm on Tuesday, February 20, 2023. Our representatives in Olympia need to know how you feel about what they are making decisions on. You can see more of the recent bills here.

Taxes Are Too High

I already pay road and gas taxes and if you were to pass this bill it would add an additional .025 cents for every mile I drive each year on top of those. This is definitely not good news.

When you lease a vehicle the company allows a 12,000-mile per-year limit, and that would cost an additional $300 in taxes per year. Workers in our rural area commute from Elk to Spokane (38 miles each way) accumulating an average of 20,000 miles every year. This would work out to a $500 increase in taxes.

What about the miles driven in other states, how about truckers? We live close to the Idaho border so if I go visit the kids in Coeur d’Alene, I really should not pay a Washington tax on the miles driven on the Idaho roads, right? Do we need to document whenever we cross a state line so that we do not get ripped off for paying for Washington roads when we are not using them?

Our budgets are already suffering. Inflation is crazy and gas prices have already more than doubled since Biden/Inslee got into office. It feels as though politicians are so far removed from the working person’s life that they have forgotten to include us in the decision process. An additional $300 to $500 per year could easily break the camel’s back. Please do not pass this bill. Allow us to remain responsible tax-paying citizens by NOT making it impossible to continue going to work.

…this Week’s Bills

This Week’s bills are quite plentiful. Here are 4 of the most interesting ones listed below. I am hoping, you will become an activist letting the Legislators know what you think. Please comment on them using the links below, if you want to. The comments below are my own.

Pro

Pro 5045 Incentivizing rental of accessory dwelling units
In order to help solve the housing shortage quickly, an owner can improve and rent accessory dwelling units to low-income. Rent for these households must not exceed 30% of their income. This is all done under the incentive of getting a tax exemption on the unit while renting to people in the 60% AMI level of poverty. I do have one question. Would the owner have to then burn the place down after the low-income tenant moves to prevent being crucified by taxes the following year?

Con

Con 5599 Youth seeking protected health care services
This bill sets $7.5 million aside for children to be able to run away and seek gender change medical services without parental consent. It also allows the center or residence where they stay to not have to let the parents know that they are there. I disagree because I believe a parent has the responsibility to protect their children, and the right to direct their children as they are growing up. When a person becomes an adult, they are fully able to make their own choices then.

Con 5484 Washington food production, improve. voluntary environ. stewardship
You are putting in place a commission to promote the Green New Deal. Farms are one of the best stewards in the use of carbon on the planet. Science shows that plants use carbon in growth and they also store carbon in the soil. Your bill wants farmers to build and use carbon storage tanks. This is not needed and very large waste. This is a commission that is purposely set up as a way to shut down farming by imposing restrictions on fuel use and equipment. It is another Government Overreach Program.

Con 5624 Implementing recommendations for substance use recovery services advisory committee
Absolutely no! Legalizing the possession of a controlled substance will not help to improve our community at all. Police have their hands tied by this as they go around addicted encampments. Instead of imprisoning law-breaking addicts, we are now directed to refer them to treatment only. There are no consequences.

Intake and recovery counseling is an expensive process Unfortunately, it is only successful if the individual decides to actually make a change in their own life. You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make that horse drink! I know that we the people will end up paying for all of this with tax increases. This bill includes plans to provide a directory of treatment options available and begin the building of treatment/recovery service locations across the state (within a 2 hr drive). Building these addiction recovery homes and then training the staff will cost a great deal.

THE WORST PROVISION IN THIS BILL—Removes the requirement or right to have a public hearing for the community’s participation before a treatment program is built in their midst (quoted below).

“A requirement for DOH to hold a public hearing in a community where an OTP opioid treatment program is proposed to be located is removed.”

This is another expensive program that does not allow public voting, and it is criminal. I can not give my support to a bill that punishes the public in order to be able to pamper the criminal.

HB1628 Modify Real Estate Taxes

Increasing Real Estate Tax Rates

At the Washington State Legislator, HB1628 – Increase affordable housing by modifying real estate excise tax rates is being discussed on Tuesday, 2/7, and Friday, 2/10/23 this week. Please,”testify”.

There are four funds that the money will be divided between. I’d like to see exactly what each one plans to do with the money. Having some kind of accountability would make it a lot easier to see if this tax increase is really a good idea. Does this increase really help to supply more affordable housing, or does it increase a slush fund for the State?

The Dept of Commerce collects and deposits the money:
30% to The Washington Housing Trust Fund,
30% to The Apple Health and Homes Account,
25% to The Affordable Housing for All Account, and
15% to Developmental Disabilities Trust Account.

Follow the Money

Where does the money actually go? It is a sizeable tax increase, creating a large chunk of change for the 4 account holders appointed. 50% on construction/acquisition of affordable housing, and 50% on operations, maintenance, and services. Unrealistic, doesn’t it usually cost more to build a complex than it does to maintain it?

Through December 2019, the sales tax percentage was 1.28% on all sales straight across the board. There were no increases in higher-priced sales. This bill changes the tax percentage when sales happen at higher values.

New Tax Percentages

January 1, 2020
1.10% of sale prices < $500,000
1.28% of sale prices between >$500,000-$1,500,000
2.75% of sale prices between $1,500,000-$3,000,000
3.00% of sale prices between $3,000,000-$5,000,000
4.00% of sale prices >$5,000,000 (January 2025 this level begins)

On the sale of a 750,000 home, the sales & use tax would work out to
1.28% x 750,000 = $9,600

On the sale of a 7,000,000 hom
4% x 7,000,000 =$280,000
Compared to the old percentage rate of 1.28% x 7,000,000 = $89,600

80% of the Median income for a Family of four is below $7562/month.
60% of the Median income for a Family of four is below $4537/month.
50% of the Median income for a Family of four is below $2269/month.
30% of the Median income for a Family of four is $1579/month.

“Affordable Housing” is when (rental) rates for a family of four in the 60% median income range (4,537) do not exceed 30% of that income. That family is allowed a maximum rent of $1,361 per month.

Senate Bill 5190

Multi Plex Housing Senate Bill 5190, Increasing middle housing in areas traditionally dedicated to single-family
detached housing. It’s companion House bill is HB 1110

Please Vote

I am against this bill. Please vote against it this morning using the link above. Bill 5190 would allow the circumvention of all the local Growth Management safeguards put in place to preserve single-family lifestyles. It removes any voice an existing community would have in protesting against the increased development.

Not requiring a provision for parking for the multi-units will automatically create all kinds of stress. I have lived in apartments, stacked on top of noisy neighbors. Parking my car on the street after work was a nightly feat of ingenuity and timing.

This bill is bad news. Taking away any input from the community it will crowd by ignoring planning steps before allowing an increased population in an area. It is idiotic to not make sure that the utilities, sewage, drainage, and transportation could handle the extra load before commencing the project.

Yes, we have a housing shortage in Washington state.

Honestly, we need to respond to it quickly, but, not without thinking about what the repercussions will be. In preparing to house the mass migration into our state, we should not destroy it for the residents that are already here. This would greatly change an existing quiet community into an overcrowded and negative place to raise kids without allowing any voice of dissent for the residents living in the proposed area of development.

Developers, contractors, and real estate agents will love this bill. It gives them free rein to do whatever they deem necessary to put the units up. No requirements to jump through local planning “hoops of fire” makes their job so much easier.

I can see that an established single-family area of town, with scattered vacant lots, would very easily be overrun. With the addition of 6 times more habitation per lot that would very quickly happen. We rush to put up cracker jack boxes “plexes”, replacing neighborhoods, as the sky is falling all around us.

Poison Makeup Problems

mascara Did you know there are poison makeup problems in Washington state? I just testified “Con”, on House Bill 1047, “. This bill concerns the use of toxic chemicals in cosmetic products”.

NO to EPA

Con. By adding another “appointed” regulator, the Dept of Ecology and Health is a waste of taxpayer money.

Further, the bill’s report shows that 4 legitimately elected government programs are already actively monitoring for dangerous chemicals in cosmetics supplied to Washington state.

the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act (FDCA),
the Fair Packaging and Labeling Act (FPLA), and
the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which is requiring compliance with labeling regulations.
the state’s Intrastate Commerce in Drugs and Cosmetics code (ICDC) preventing adulteration and misbranding.

Why appoint the Environmental Protection Agency? Instead, just enforce laws that are already set up. Then, allow supply and demand to run the course. The presence of formaldehyde and lead in makeup products will naturally become known. Which in turn will steer the public away from purchasing them.

The “minority and people of color” card, on this issue, is without merit. Any person, (pink, yellow, green, purple, white, black, or brown) that uses a product with lead or formaldehyde in it, will experience poisoning problems. You don’t have to be a special color to experience a problem with poison.

Quoted from page 5;
“The chemicals restricted in cosmetics in this bill are already restricted in many
other regulatory contexts in other products and are widely known to be harmful. The
aggressive marketing of certain types of cosmetics to women of color leads to
disproportionate public health burdens from the chemicals in those products. Based on
recent product testing, formaldehyde in hair straighteners and lead in mascara and eyeliners
are two of the most concerning chemicals in products that are used particularly extensively
by women of color, including immigrant communities.”

Watch Out House Bill 1333

Watch out for House Bill 1333 -Establishing domestic violent extremism commission

It seems as though Zuckerberg penned it for FaceBook on steroids, making it illegal to spread “misinformation“. If House Bill 1333 were passed it would set up a spy network, able to use some frightening tools to rid us of our right to free speech. Forces like the IRS, the FBI, and Homeland Security are quite scary to me. This is about “you are not allowed to disagree” with me. It is definitely not American. Check out this Great Article Domestic Terrorism Bill in WA Stateby Wes Cormier in the GHWeekly (courtesy of Influencing Olympia author.

Another one

House Bill 5599 – Youth seeking protected health care service

“protected health care service” ?

This bill sets $7.5 million aside to pay for children to be able to run away and seek gender change medical services without parental consent. It allows the center where they stay not to let the parents know they are there. I disagree with this because I believe a parent has the right to protect their children as they are growing up. It is the parent’s duty to do everything they can to protect their children.

When a child becomes an adult, they are mature and much more aware of their own likes and dislikes. Much more prepared to make their own choices. They are no longer inexperienced youths who could be easily misled. Making the decision to alter your sexual orientation is not a little change. It is something that can not be reversed, so having a little more time to consider the decision seems wise.