State Senate Republican Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, says he’s concerned about the allegation that a former Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT) economist resigned rather than adjust his projected impact of the state’s cap-and-trade tax.
“It’s very disturbing to hear that executive agencies under the governor’s oversight are pushing staff to misrepresent facts and figures. This is especially upsetting if it was done to hide the full impact of the governor’s ‘Climate Commitment Act’ and manipulate the people of Washington into accepting the spike in gas prices without knowing the true cause,” Braun said in a statement Friday. “The projections by the state employee who is at the center of this lawsuit have been proven to be correct — not because oil companies or gas station owners got greedy, but because the state of Washington did.”
Braun’s comments follow a KING-TV story in which economist Scott Smith claimed he was pressured to lie about the impact of the state’s recently implemented cap-and-trade fuel program. In an announcement Friday, The Citizen Action Defense Fund (CADF), which represents Smith, announced it would seek a claim of $750,000.
“My client was forced out of state service for one reason: he refused to lie about the tremendous impact that cap-and-trade was having on fuel prices and ‘jimmy the numbers’ to support the Governor’s narrative. Whistleblower protections exist to make sure that state employees won’t be bullied by political pressure,” Jackson Maynard, executive director and counsel for CADF, said in a statement. “My client showed tremendous courage and integrity, and for that, he was shown the door. He lost years of wages, potential for retirement savings, and his good name was sullied.”
According to Smith, he was pressured by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) to adjust his projected impact of the program, which Smith claimed would raise gas prices by up to 50 cents a gallon.
According to CADF, Smith prepared an estimate for the Transportation Revenue Forecasting Council in January that showed the program would “significantly” impact fuel costs in Washington.
Smith claims on Jan. 18, he was told “management” would “prefer that he not include cap-and-trade surcharges in his quarterly fuel price forecasts.”
Smith claims he was later denied a promotion, his job duties were adjusted, attempts to take leave or work remotely were denied, and his supervisors attempted to adjust and back-date performance evaluations.
Smith retired on Nov. 6 and filed a whistleblower report the same day. On Thursday, CADF filed a tort claim and notified the state of his claim for $750,000.
“We will fight for him to get the justice he deserves for the outrageous treatment he received by the state he served so well and with such dedication. On top of that, we are fighting for Washington state citizens to receive transparency and reliable and accurate information from their government.”
In response, a spokesperson for Gov. Jay Inslee told KING-TV the state would try to determine the validity of Smith’s claims.
“Today was the first time our office was made aware of this individual or these assertions, and we have not had the opportunity to review them. There will be independent investigations to determine whether they can be substantiated. We rely on and expect our agencies to provide thorough, credible analysis based on the best data available,” Faulk wrote in an email to KING-TV.
In his statement, Braun said the state has seen “repeated evidence of serious mismanagement" during Inslee's tenure.
“Washingtonians deserve better. They deserve transparency and accountability. No wonder trust in government is at an all-time low. At the same time this employee was being told to change his figures, and subsequently being pushed out of his job for refusing to do so, the Governor and legislative Democrats were calling upon oil companies for radical transparency,” Braun said. “Instead, they should have been radically transparent with the people about the effects of ‘cap-and-tax’ their own experts correctly projected.”
According to AAA, the average price for a gallon of gas in Washington state was $4.33 on Monday, even to the state’s average a year ago. The national average for a gallon of gas was $3.24, about 17 cents cheaper than the national average a year ago.
