Sorry Shaun. If the legislature is going to go after the holy grail this session your bill is DOA. Fwiw your criticism of Ferguson’s budget is unfounded because as you yourself noted the revenue generated from your bill will not be available in 2026. The only way to stave off budgets cuts next year would be an immediate increase to taxes already being collected, namely sales, property or the B&O tax. Thank you and drive through.

It should also be noted that Fergusons budget increases spending by over $1B. How is that even remotely an austerity budget?

@2: Just as Strangerspeak defines “conservative,” as “anyone even ever so slightly to the right of Sawant,” it defines “austerity,” as “one penny less than our failed policies can continue to waste.”

(During in my last years in Seattle, one of the aspects I hated most was my sounding like a KVI caller from the ‘90s whenever discussing Seattle’s policies.)

@2

"... Fergusons budget
increases spending by over $1B.
How is that even remotely an austerity budget?"

let's See:
'24-25 Budget:
(apx.) $150B. yearly
inflation rate: Three percent

$150B X 3% = 4.5 BILLION

so
Genius
it's Actually
a THREE AND
A HALF B I L L I O N
DOLLAR CUT. ain't Math AMAZING!?

@3

Now, now,
Don't be selling
Yourself Short, wormmy:

"... one
of the aspects
I hated most was

my
sounding
like a KVI caller
from the ‘90s whenever
discussing Seattle’s policies."

Is
Actually
One of your
BEST Qualities!

you haven't actually
"left" Seattle

You're just Lecturing
It from a teeny bit*
Fuhrer away!

*What's
THREE (fucking!)
THOUSAND MILES in this, The Jet Age!?

Merry Christmas!

from: the Northwest Progressive
Institute's 'The Cascadia Advocate':

Governor Bob Ferguson endorses millionaires’ tax
on high earners, unveils austerity-centric
supplemental operating budget

. . . . .

Superintendent of Public Instruction Chris Reykdal
made that point in a lengthy and highly critical
response to Ferguson’s budget proposal.

“There is no question that it’s hard to write a budget,” said Reykdal.

“As families and communities across the state
are facing high inflation and high costs,
they are working toward affordability
-- and our state should be, too.”

“Unfortunately, this budget proposal takes an austerity approach.

While that’s a common response to financial challenges, what’s troubling is that we know so much about income inequality and tax inequality in our state, and we can’t keep putting budget proposals forward that don’t take that inequality into account.

This budget, like others before it,
closes the holes in Washington’s
budget on the backs of
public services.”

“This is a false narrative.

The idea that we either need to cut from one direct service that our communities rely on in order to fund another public service is wrong. In a state that is rooted in justice and committed to equity, we should be talking about moving forward.

Cuts to public services hurt us.
They directly shrink incomes and
jobs, and ultimately, cause immense harm.”

Exactly.

Washington voters get this.

Brian Heywood and the right wing gave them an opportunity to completely blow up the state’s finances in 2024 by repealing the Climate Commitment Act, erasing the capital gains tax on the wealthy that funds the Education Legacy Trust, and deliberately putting WA Cares into a death spiral.

Voters
resoundingly said no
to all three of those schemes
while electing Ferguson and a Democratic Legislature.

Then, this year, voters across Western Washington returned every progressive Democratic legislator standing in a special election to office despite a furious effort from powerful moneyed interests in support of Republican and conservative Democratic challengers.

Incumbents Victoria Hunt, Edwin Obras, Vandana Slatter, Deb Krishnadasan, Osman Salahuddin, and Janice Zahn were all retained along with Tina Orwall, Emily Alvarado, and Brianna Thomas, who were unopposed.

Want even more evidence?
Consider our polling. In March,
we asked Washington voters if they
wanted a revenue-focused approach or
an austerity-focused one. A strong majority
said they wanted a revenue-focused approach.

See for yourself:

https://www.nwprogressive.org/weblog/2025/12/governor-bob-ferguson-endorses-millionaires-tax-on-high-earners-unveils-austerity-centric-supplemental-operating-budget.html

--by Andrew Villeneuve; December 23rd, 2025

Sic 'em,
Shaun.

Dear Stranger:

Q. Is this Member of the The Stranger Community a spammer or otherwise abusive?

A. see: @5

B. 'Please let us know so we can give them what for.'

clicking on the link
goes Straight to
Nowhweresville

Has 'Blacky Wallz'
Compromised
your site?

A. consider it Done.

@6 -- see: @7

Everyone wants a "revenue" based budget as long as the "revenue" comes from someone else!
The whole "tax the rich" mantra has been played before, eventually you run out of rich (then you become the rich to be taxed).

@10

well
THAT's a
fucking BINGO.

when we no longer
have a Million Homeless

when Every Citizen
can Afford to go to College
without becoming Indentured Servants

when Daycare is Affordable
so Parents can fucking
Go. To. Work

when getting Sick
doesn't Bankrupt
Your sorry ass

THEN we stop taxing
the Superrich and
the Mega
Million-
aires

you know -- Like
those 'Civilized'
Countries?

who
Invest
in their
Citizenry?

cuz 'Living' on our Knees
is way Worse than
dying on our
Feet.

@11 there are zero countries in the world where that is the case. The one truth you always omit is that capitalism, despite its flaws, has done more to lift people out of poverty than any other economic system.

There are two ways for government to grow revenue. Increase the overall size of the economy by allowing capital to invest in projects that produce or confiscate capital and take a bigger slice of a fixed pie. We now know what WA and Seattle are planning to do. This short sighted thinking has never produced the outcome desired.

@14

speaking of Capitalism, Unfucking Bridled
and an Holy Complicit RWNJ
Misinformation camapign

and their psycophants:
oh, and Democracy! :

This week, we learned another lesson about how corporate media consolidation corrupts democracy . . .  The segment was spiked by CBS’ newly-installed Editor-in Chief Bari Weiss. This censorship exposes a web of conflicts of interest, and demonstrates, yet again, that democracy depends on a strong, independent media that is a true fourth estate, not “for the state.”

So why did Bari Weiss kill the story? She reportedly claimed the story needed more voices from the Trump administration, yet Alfonsi and her colleagues had already requested comment from the White House, the State Department and Homeland Security.

In an internal email, Alfonsi wrote, “If the administration’s refusal to participate becomes a valid reason to spike a story, we have effectively handed them a 'kill switch' for any reporting they find inconvenient.”

Recall, Trump sued CBS over a “60 Minutes” interview with Kamala Harris, which he claimed was selectively edited to help her campaign. While legal experts say CBS would have easily won that case, CBS’s parent company, Paramount, was hoping to be bought by Skydance Media, owned by the son of billionaire Trump ally Larry Ellison.

So Paramount settled with Trump for $15 million.
The merger was then approved by the Trump administration.

Shortly thereafter, the Ellisons bought Bari Weiss’ rightwing news website for $150 million, then installed her as Editor-in-Chief of CBS News.

Larry Ellison and his son David now want to add to their media empire, attempting to acquire Warner Brothers/Discovery in a hostile takeover. Warner Brothers/Discovery, which owns HBO and CNN among other media properties, rebuffed the Ellisons’ bid in favor of a competing offer from Netflix (that bid does not include HBO or CNN).

Neither merger is in the public interest, as fewer and fewer media giants gobble up more and more, restricting consumer choice and the power of creators – writers, actors, directors, etc. – to demand fair treatment. Trump has said he intends to intervene, and could wield the government’s regulatory authority – corruptly – to favor one buyer over the other.

So, both Netflix and the Ellisons’ Paramount/Skydance have an interest in currying favor with Trump.And therein lies the reason why CBS, owned by Paramount/Skydance, spiked an important “60 Minutes” story of the US deporting innocent men to a foreign black site, to be tortured.“

One of the first tenets of ethics in journalism is to seek truth and report it,” Alexa Koenig of the Human Rights Center at University of California, Berkeley, said on the Democracy Now! news hour. She was interviewed by “60 Minutes” about the center’s research on torture and other abuses at CECOT.

“This is a big moment for American politics, for getting facts and truth out to the public about what has been done in their name, what is being done with taxpayer dollars.”

News organizations
cannot function under corrupt
corporate control, answering to billionaire bosses
and politicians. When that happens, democracy dies, and dictators rise.

We need, and the public must demand, a truly independent media.

--by Amy Goodman & Denis Moynihan; Christmas Eve, 2025

https://www.democracynow.org/2025/12/24/cbs_60_minutes_censorship_rings_another

This short sighted thinking has Always produced the outcome desired:
Ever more Power and Control in Fewer and Fewer hands.
and the Crushing of those speaking out
for Human fucking Rights.

which we Know
You're In Favor
Of, right, d13?

Mao also targeted millionaires and the educated during the Cultural Revolution in China

He called them out. He said the rich are bad and "they didn't pay their fair share". He targeted them. Mao used these slogans to enrich and fortify One-Party rule and power

Sadly, Gov Bob Ferguson is no different.

(Shawn Scott, on the other hand is not evil like Ferguson. He's just a knucklehead)

Our elderly, crazy, alcoholic, unemployable, neighbor (who lives off a trust fund) came over yesterday morning to breathlessly tell us that they're going to impose an income and capital gains tax next year. Also, the entire area is going to depopulate because of AI.

@18: Well, at least he brought over a cranberry side dish.

@17

"He called them out.
He said the rich are bad and 'they
didn't pay their fair share.' He targeted them."

Sounds like he took a page
from FDR's playbook, who Welcomed
his Class's hatred. When they told him they
were gonna Move if he (Finally!) taxed them (and
at the same time, create the largest Middle Class the world
had/has Ever Seen, FDR didn't bat an eye - 'I'm gonna Miss them!'

he chuckled and the Rich've been
doing their Damnedest to
undermine FDR's
Progressive
Policies
EVER
since.

We Can have Nice Things

OR

we can have ALL the Wealth
Concentrated in just a
Few greedy hands.

But
Not
Both.

@20: You babble contradicts itself. Do you even know what you're talking about?

The Dem war against the middle class continues! My gas and electric costs went up 40 percent since Inslee's carbon tax went into effect. I'm glad that Ferg is at least slightly aware of the impact of some of this tax and spend policy!

40%? Really dear? Where do you live?

And remember, utilities are only as expensive as you make them. If the bill is too high, you might want to think about economizing. Turn a light bulb off, put on a sweater, consider using a crockpot. They’re wonderful for nourishing and delicious soups and stews. You can even bake a cake in them!