This argument over the B&O tax is going to drive me crazy because it's obvious those people reporting on the proposed tax increase have no damn idea what they are talking about.

This increases tax will not be levied on businesses that EARN $2 million per year. It will be levied on business with $2 million per year in sales. Even if those businesses are not profitable or have very low margins (grocery stores, pharmacies).

EARN means PROFIT. The B&O tax is on GROSS sales. It's a deeply unfair tax for that reason.

"Progressives" have been in charge of this state for 40 or more years. If our tax system is "regressive", you know exactly who to blame. Hint: They belong to the Democrat party.

@1 so here we are, righting the wrongs of a regressive tax system, tryna help small businesses. And yes we know the difference between revenues and profits you silly goose! Revenue is a much easier measure to tax for than profit, and if you find a problem with that maybe suggest a solution; real policy work is much more nuanced than WAAAH THE DemOcRAts!

@3 I thought the jumpstart tax was the progressive option to balance things? Progressives like to act like these businesses have infinite money to give the city. Assuming they don’t leave it still means less hiring or higher costs if they are customer facing. There are costs to these proposals and pretending that “big business” can keep on giving to the city is not a viable strategy.

WereBackBaby dear, you know as well as I do that in 1933 the state Supreme Court struck down a voter approved income tax. And the unceasing propaganda that comes from the WA State GOP is that an Income Tax is evil, because they'll just tack it on to the existing taxes. People who grew up here accept that as a matter of faith.

But let me also quietly murmur this: You Tories are always whining about how "the Dems" (or similar) have "run the state for forty years" (or similar). Why do yiou think that is? I would posit that it's not that the Democrats are somehow superior (although they are). It's that your candidates are all garbage. Ellen Craswell, Dino Rossi, Loren Culp, Semi Bird, Tiffany Smiley, Joe Kent, Dave Reichert. They - and many others - were all terrible: unqualified, incompetent, largely willfully ignorant, with some of them - Craswell and Kent - genuinely nuts. And the GOP Positions are mostly just cynical pandering to the stupidest people in the parts of the state where there are more cows than people.

We used to have decent GOP Politicians. John Spellman (last GOP governor, who left office in 1985) was a thoughtful man who worked across the aisle and did his best for the state, especially on environmental issues. Slade Gorton and Dan Evans served well and honorably in the US Senate (Evans as Governor and later US Senator). While I was not alive during his Tenure, I have a soft spot for Gordon Clinton (one of Seattle's last Republican mayors).

(Fun Fact: Dan Evans was the governor who established Evergreen State, and was the second President of the college)

My suggestion to the WA State GOP is stop whining and clean up your act. Otherwise, you will stay a party for weirdos.

@4 - One of your most astute posts in a lifetime of astute posts.

"The Bellevue Full Employment Act" (aka: Progressive Revenue) Is Not Dead in Seattle

Fixed it for you. You're welcome

SeattleLove dear, there's no need to be churlish. I know you probably haven't been in Seattle in decades, but what is good for Bellevue is good for Seattle, and vice-versa. There are two big bridges and a few surface highways between Seattle and Bellevue, and they are full of cars going both ways 24/7.

I get the Daily Journal of Commerce and the Puget Sound Business Journal. Both cover business issues for the entire region, and I can tell you that reports of Seattle's demise are premature at best.