Not just once, but again and again, for his ad attacking the bipartisan tax swap plan.

First, there was the "Truth Needle", which judged the ad "half true" (perhaps showing that grade inflation is not confined to our schools).

It is true, as Inslee's ad asserts, that a tax swap as outlined by either Zarelli or Hunter would result in taxes going up in property-rich school districts such as Seattle and Bellevue, although those districts would receive no additional funding.

But the ad fails to mention that property taxes would go down in many property-poor school districts, such as Yakima.
. . .
Inslee's attack ad is correct in that the tax-swap concept endorsed by McKenna almost certainly would cause taxes in some places to go up.

But Inslee is off the mark in dismissing the idea as a mere gimmick with no benefit to schools. And he gets extra demerits for offering no credible alternative.

For those reasons, we rule Inslee's claims half true.

Then the editorial board had their say.

Democratic gubernatorial candidate Jay Inslee not only misleads voters about Republican Rob McKenna's education funding plans in a recent campaign ad, he exposes his own tenuous grasp on the topic.

Not satisfied with that, editorial page editor Kate Riley hit Inslee again.

The effect of the state's overreliance on local education levies is a disparity between school districts that are property rich and can generate more local levy dollars and those that are poor.  Under the swap, the local levy taxes would disappear and the revenues would be transferred to the state, which the court wants in charge of education funding.

But the real damage of Inslee's line of attack is to undermine the focused bipartisan work now being done to answer the court's mandate.  What if these lawmakers come to agreement across the aisle?  Would Inslee veto the bill?  Would a riled-up and misled public sink its chances?

The Times could — and should — be even tougher on Inslee's sleazy ad, but we have to give them some credit for going as far as they have.

Why is Inslee doing something that will make it harder for him to govern, should he be elected?  He probably hasn't thought much beyond the election, and he knows the vote is likely to be close.

I suspect his political team also wants to neutralize the tax issue.  Many voters have noticed that our Democratic governors tend to promise no tax increases during the campaign — and then break that promise with so much haste after the election that it is clear to all that they never meant it.  By running this ad his team may hope to make voters forget about that record of broken promises.