Comments

1

Good, now if we can only have student loan forgiveness

3

This tax also hits sole proprietors -- ie, people who work for themselves and don't employ anybody. So the assertion that the tax "hits your future employers" is not strictly accurate.

4

Except that older students probably make too much for this to help them.

5

I like the spirit of this bill but it's a huge problem that it let's the richest tech companies part way off the hook while jacking up struggling small businesses. Is there something in the Washington State constitution that all taxes need to be regressive?

A second problem is that higher ed funding is complicated. Where's the guarantee that once this tax on businesses is enacted, the state itself continues to fund higher ed at current rates or better? No where, because inevitably once this revenue stream starts flowing into higher ed the state will dial back their own funding. Public college in WA will continue to get worse and less effective.

And third nearly all economists, from Marxists to hard core libertarians, agree that it's far better to tax individual profit taking and wealth instead of taxing businesses directly. the former has next to no effect on growth; the latter hurts growth and the job market.

But yeah, let's get more of our in state students through college so that we don't need to import so many skilled workers with out of state/country. We are the worst in the USA in that regard ...

6

@3 -- Right, which means that it is essentially an income tax, but only on a select few. We have no general income tax, we have no capital gains tax, but if you are a contractor, then you pay an income tax. No benefits, usually lower wages, but hey, lucky you, you get to pay an income tax.

This is a good program, but our tax system is so fucked up.

7

" Is there something in the Washington State constitution that all taxes need to be regressive?"

Pretty much. The constitution bans income taxes (which also likely means capital gains taxes, although I don't think there has been much in the way of case law). Attempts at changing the law (via initiative) have failed (although I think it is time to try again).

8

This is a good thing, but tuition is only one barrier. The bigger one is how to balance work and school to still afford living expenses. So while this program will help, it won't go very far in reversing the persistence of inequality since those who already have will be better able to handle thw juggling.

9

@3
Sole proprietors do work for themselves,
but nothing prevents them from paying wages to hired employees (along with the requisite employment taxes) or paying consultants.
Whether this new schedule of taxes actually promotes a more qualified workforce for the sole proprietor business is another question.

10

Think outside the box to obtain the flexible schedule you need.

12

Wow.more tax dollars needlessly wasted. I'm sure if someone really wanted to attend school they'd find a way on their own much like I did at ASU in the 80s working 3 jobs and paying for an apartmentwith a small Sallie Mae loan.Living on 40oz beer & chips, winchells and dunkin donuts..How bad do you want it. What are you willing to sacifice to get where you wanna go. When is this sorry mentality of society owes me an education bc I'm too stupid to get a real job going to stop. We owe you nothing. Get over yourself. Your not all that

13

@12:
sigh...

Lets pretend you're telling the truth (of course we all know you're not)

I'll start by saying I guess you were to cowardly and unpatriotic to enlist in the U.S. Military, the G.I. Bill (yes even the anemic one in the 80's) would have been a nice touch to your fantasy.

But leaving that aside, tuition at Arizona State in 84-91 was around 365/semester

The federal minimum wage in 1986 was 3,35/hr

Now assuming Arizona's minimum wage was the same, so after taxes that would be about 2.84.

So 365/2.84=128

Therefore, working 20 hours a week, it would take 7 weeks to cover tuition for a semester .(assuming you didn't qualify for a Pell Grant which would have covered tuition back then)

Minimum wage in Arizona today is 10.50/hr or 9/hr after taxes

And tuition at Arizona State is 10,000 so at the minimum wage you would need to work 40hrs/wk for 27 weeks.

That difference is mostly due to the loss of funds, due to tax cuts (so Paris Hilton can by more shoes)

14

Once student loans became federally insured schools jacked up the cost because they knew that the government insured those loans and it was way to easy to wring it right out of the students pockets and into theirs!!! Cost of college rose right along with the amounts that students could get loaned.....funny how that works

15

Nothing is FREE! Somebody's going to pay for it somehow. I believe the idea of free education is in fact an excellent idea. However the Democrats are going about selling this idea all wrong. This is MY idea of how tuition free education should exist so that all individuals we call Americans, regardless of race, creed, color, religious sexual preference, LBGTQ and poverty level individuals, if they desire, can continue their education. EVERYONE MUST maintain a B grade level and above in order to take advantage of tuition free education. Free education for everyone just because your an American is both BS and dumb. Our tax dollars being spent to provide a college degree to those who would rather be out partying all the time, smoking bongs or sniffing god only knows what up their noses or driving themselves to madness with a silver spoon on my tax dollars I'd NEVER support. But study your ass off and maintain a B average grade or above to become something and I'm all in. Drop below a B average and you're on your own. So come on Democrats and change up the verbiage or sales tactics of free college education for everyone and make it clear that it's only free as long as you work for it and you may get somewhere. You have all these Republicans running around screaming SOCIALISM and literally scaring the hell out of millions of Americans who are totally clueless of what that even means or what socialism really is. Let's see a show of hands of how many Americans are willing to give up their Social Security. Yes folks, that is in fact a form if socialism. Anyhow, that's a topic for another day. Right now it's about tuition free college education. Don't promise it to EVERY American just because their American. Make them sleek for it, study hard and earn that degree. In the end they'll not only feel immense self worth for their achievements, but we won't have to beg other countries to send us their students with engineers degrees because we make it impossible for most Americans to even get the chance at earning one because it's to damn expensive.

16

@15 so, what you mean is that people should be sure to study trampoline and english lit on the state's dime, and not take actually hard classes that might risk their GPA? There's a lot wrong with college (don't get me wrong, I am pro-education, but there is plenty of room for real improvement) but scholarship based funds are a pretty obvious "road to hell is paved with good intentions" bit.

17

It is very cool that more people will be able to get a higher education. I believe that such projects should constantly expand. This will provide an opportunity to increase competition in the labor market and as a result, the average wage level will rise. Many people suffer from depression due to low wages and this will partially solve the problem. I read a detailed essay about this on the https://samples.edusson.com/depression/. Everyone should be able to get a higher education and this is an indicator of a developed society when everyone has the same access to any university or college.

18

It is very cool that more people will be able to get a higher education. I believe that such projects should constantly expand. This will provide an opportunity to increase competition in the labor market and as a result, the average wage level will rise. Many people suffer from depression due to low wages and this will partially solve the problem. I read a detailed essay about this on the https://sampleedusson.com/depression/. Everyone should be able to get a higher education and this is an indicator of a developed society when everyone has the same access to any university or college.


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