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News & ArtsMonday, November 28, 2011
Occupy / Olympia A Hard Question That Occupiers Will Have to Answer in Olympia Today
Posted by Eli Sanders on Mon, Nov 28, 2011 at 6:00 AM
But first this photo again, because it's worth setting today's Occupation in some historical context. We are now in the midst of the worst recession since the Great Depression, and in Washington State, back during the ol' Great Depression, people marched on the state Capitol Building—just like they will today—to demand more help for the working class. Back then they called it a Hunger March, staged on behalf of the Unemployed Citizens League and other organizations. Today it's called Occupy the Capitol, staged on behalf of the 99 percent. But the basic demand is the same: a state that does more to help its citizens get through very hard times.
- Vibert Jeffers, Susan Parish Photograph Collection, Washington State Archives, used with permission.
- "On January 16, 1933, people converged on Olympia for a 'Hunger March' to demand food, shelter, relief and programs to create jobs for the unemployed throughout the state."
Now, here's the hard question that today's Occupiers will have to answer:
If Governor Chris Gregoire's proposed $2 billion in cuts to basic state services—coming on top of $10.5 billion in cuts already made to basic state services over the last three years—represents what Occupy Seattle has called "one of the greatest assaults in our state’s history against the interests of workers, students, and the poor," then...
Should the Occupy protesters support Gov. Gregoire's proposal to "buy back" about $500 million in cuts to education, prisoner supervision, and care for the developmentally disabled by temporarily raising the (regressive) state sales tax by half a penny?
So far, this half-cent sales tax increase is the only major revenue-raising idea formally on the table in Olympia. It has the benefit of getting needed revenue into the state treasury immediately to save important programs. (Unlike other taxes that are collected once a year, sales taxes are collected constantly.) But it has the problem of forcing the working poor to pay more, as a percentage of their income, to save programs meant to help the working poor. While Occupiers from all over head toward Olympia this morning, how about a poll on what they should say when they get there:
Our presence alone is what is needed. Right now politicians are trying to continue to make deals with the 1% while Rome continues to burn. Policy-Shmalicy. It don't matter at this point. The solutions will start to come as we approach critical mass.
Amass Now! We'll figure it out once we have our quorum. They want us to talk about taxes when we want to talk about taking care of one another. You know they may pass a Tax referendum but that won't keep them from cutting basic services which will cost so much more in the long run fiscally.
No, it is not the best type of tax. But it is better than nothing, which is what social services will get if it doesn't pass. And rich people do pay sales tax, even if not as much as they should.
Even more importantly, we need to pass this tax so we can move on to the next one. We all know much more revenue is needed. But if this one fails at the ballot box, Democratic legislators (who are the legislators who decide these things) will be convinced that no tax measure of any kind will ever pass.
This will be true even if a significant portion of the NO votes are from voters who support higher taxes but think the sales tax is not good enough.
For an example of this, look at the polls showing that a majority of people oppose health care reform, but that a significant chunk of that opposition comes from people who think it didn't go far enough.
Democratic legislators can't handle that kind of nuance. You have to beat them over the head.
2. i am originally from taxachusetts
3. poor people already pay too many taxes in this state and federally 15% on income and 11% on other goods
but i think the real question is:
Why can't the social concious and protests of the Great Depression? or of the Industrial Revolution?
because Americans have gone soft
10
Many of the hundreds of cuts Gregoire and other Democrats have tallied are simply automatic spending increases that didn't end up happening. For example, because the state twice suspended automatic cost-of-living adjustments for education employees, budgeters counted it as a "cut" of $682 million. Another "cut" of $344 million is counted because it stopped regular cost-of-living increases for some pensioners.
The $10.5 billion number also includes more than $1 billion dollars that were cut from higher education, but much of that money is still coming in a different way because lawmakers hiked tuition rates to offset the reductions.
http://www.seattlepi.com/news/article/FA…
12
A progressive income tax, particularly one targeted on high earners? Yes. Higher property taxes? Higher estate taxes? Yes.
Or a higher base sales tax with a universal rebate to make it more progressive? Yeah, that would work too.
Cascadian, how long have you lived here, or are you just clueless? Because a high-earner income tax was voted down last November.
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