(Op-Ed) Inslee Should Face Penalties for Breaking Ag Laws

Imagine the attention it would get if Governor Inslee were actually fined thousands of dollars or otherwise penalized for potentially jeopardizing Washington state's apple crop? Current indications are it's not going to happen. Ag Department prefers to educate people and virtually all previous cases have been honest mistakes.

But in this case, the stakes are LOT higher, and person doing it, should have known. And now, our apple crops potentially face a big issue.

We say potentially because it is not yet known, and may not be known for some time, if any of the infected apple maggot fruit he brought to Eastern WA actually made it's way into clean orchards. If so, the damage to our ag economy could be significant.

While his gesture was no doubt sincere, that does not change the fact that this is just the latest in a long series of mistakes, incredible lapses in judgement, and signs of ignorance and ineptitude from Inslee.

**We all remember the infamous "that's news to me" statement when asked about the nationally breaking violent CHAZ-CHOP take over of the Capitol Hill District in Seattle. Everyone from Fox to CNN, Breitbart to the Daily Caller, were on it. Inslee claimed, he didn't know.

**While the state was struggling under it's pandemic in May, Inslee found time to make a Zoom appearance on a Bernie Sanders led global warming summit, where he said COVID presented an opportunity to push through policies on climate change that might not otherwise be available. This was ignored by the Seattle media for the most part, but others outside WA slammed it as insensitive and exploitation of a crisis.

**Throughout his two terms, Inslee has broken his initial campaign pledge when he first ran on a platform of no new taxes. As far back as 2014, ShiftWA reported the 8 times he broke that pledge. Now, with COVID shortfalls, most in the Legislature firmly believe he will ask for an income tax, if he is re-elected in November.

**He has also shown the trait of being like a petulant child when he doesn't get his way, and displayed it with ignorance of state workings. When voters passed $30 car tabs last fall, Inslee retaliated by freezing a number of state road construction projects, claiming the car tab lost revenue was the culprit.

However, virtually anyone who even slightly follows state governement knows road construction is funded primariliy through GAS TAXES, and not car tabs.

**His Phase program with COVID has been turned into a mockery, with a series of sub phases such as 1.5, 1.75, and has even had some here mockingly refer to our B-F phases as 1.8675309.

Now, Applegate. Inslee should have known about the quarantine of 18 counties in Central and Eastern WA, it's been that way for years. Western WA is riddled with apple maggots and codding moths. He grew up in Selah, he should know.

But it's just another example of how he is more concerned with gender equality (Office of Equity) or preserving the rights of violent protesters and anarchists (peaceful "historic" "Seattle protests he called them) or trying to become the "greenest" governor in US history by constantly pushing for carbon taxes.

IF he's that green he should have known about agriculture.

Officials with the Washington State Department of Agriculture say no one has ever been prosecuted (that they can recall) over illegally transporting tainted fruit. The $1,000 fine and jail time of 90 days has never been issued. But in this case,they should because of the potential liability inflicted on our state's second biggest export crop.

Senator Judy Warnick of Moses Lake wants it to happen, and far more than the base penalty. Many citizens do as well. And, despite his good intentions, Inslee finally needs to be held accountable for his missteps--regardless of good intentions or not.