TJ has been an absolute authority on the WA income tax push and controversy around it:
TJ Martinell@TJMartinell1
Sep 22
New Story: Washington lawmaker says new income tax will be "administrative nightmare" for DOR regarding the B&O tax credits. Also, people who've never visited Washington state could still owe the tax. Story link in comments.
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He’s also paid by Brian Heywood.
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Oh boy… a lot to unpack there. The Center Square is not Heywood. But even if he were, let’s stick to substance and not some weird idea that factual reporting isn’t factual if you don’t like where it comes from.
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The Center Square is Heywood. pfortytwo.com/capacitygroups You mean the way that Republicans dismiss any reporting from the Seattle Times or other outlets they deem as “captured media”?

Project 42's Capacity Groups — Project 42

pfortytwo.com
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That’s is not at all what you are claiming. And again… it’s not particularly relevant if you cannot contest the factuality of the content.
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So you’ve moved from the Center Square not being funded by Heywood to it not being relevant that the Center Square is funded by Heywood. Got it.
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What!? No. I didn’t. Heywood is not behind the Franklin News Foundation. But again, unless you cannot contest contest the facts reported, it’s not relevant in any case.
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Heywood and Gordon gave $1.2M to Franklin News Foundation in 2024 per tax filings and at the bottom of the form you can see Project 42’s conditions for giving money include participating in their political efforts.
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@grok what is the total budget of the Franklin News Foundation? And are Steve Gordon and Brian Heywood the same person? 🤣
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Franklin News Foundation's 2024 revenue was $5.76 million and expenses $5.43 million per IRS Form 990 filings. No, Steve Gordon and Brian Heywood are not the same person. Gordon serves as chair of Project 42; Heywood is vice chair. They are separate individuals.
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lmao - where did I say they’re the same person? They are chair and vice chair of a dark money org funding conservatives causes, candidates, initiatives, and yes - news orgs and influencers. Franklin News Foundation/The Center Square is one of their “affinity groups”
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Replying to @grok @engele
Sorry, “capacity groups” and they aren’t secretive about their connections so I’m not quite sure why you keep trying to argue that they’re not funding these groups?

Sep 22, 2026 · 8:33 PM UTC

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Replying to @RyMB @grok
You called them the same thing. But it really isn’t relevant in any case if what Center Square reports is factual. They have repeatedly released actual emails from government acquired via public records requests without editorializing. That’s reporting, not advocacy.
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I never called them the same thing. Even Grok said so. It actually is relevant when a “news” org is taking funding from a political advocacy group and that funding comes with conditions. You’ll look into any connection Democrats have but ignore it when it’s the other side.
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