Comments

2

link's broken on the capital gains tax efforts!

3

Why does the Seattle City Council hate job creation?

4

Hard to believe that people who actually make policy understand their constituency better than a few loud-mouthed socialists, eh Ms. Graham?

5

Reuven has always been a corporate asshole. He's the Pettigrew of the Senate. It's a mystery to me why he hasn't been primaried from the left yet. I get that all the tech bros and the Queen Anne/Magnolia bougies love him, but he needs to go.

6

City: We need to have a better tax system.

State: Yawn.

City: Screw it. Here is a payroll tax.

Mayor: Hold on there. It looks like you are taxing ordinary people, who work at grocery stores.

City: OK, good point. Here is a new tax. It is as close to a graduated income tax as you can get.

State: Wait a second. We need to have a better tax system, but it should happen at the state or county level.

Look, if you can't get it done, admit you can't get it done. In an ideal world we would have a graduated income tax, along with a capital gains tax at the state level. But that ain't happening. The state is full of wimps and demagogues. In another era, the Democrats would worth with a few sensible, moderate Republicans, and just pass a flat income tax, or a flat capital gains tax. Or maybe the Democrats steamroll the Republicans, and do what is right. But instead, the Republicans are opposed to any new tax, as if the old tax is somehow better, while the Democrats is swing district are terrified of the campaigns they will run against them. Meanwhile, we actually have an income tax in this state, but it only applies to small businesses -- it is called a Business and Occupation Tax. It isn't big -- but at the end of the day, when you run a run a Taco Truck, and you pay a higher percentage of your income to the state than the head of Amazon, it sure as fuck seems like an income tax.

The point is, the tax system is fucked up. Old, reasonable Republicans (like Dan Evans) know it is fucked up. Democrats know it is fucked up. But each side doesn't want to cooperate with the other, and there are too many dumbshit Republicans who hate all taxes to actually have real reform.

7

Oh, and businesses aren't going to shift their high end jobs to some other location over such a tiny fucking tax. What an absurd idea.

8

We can - and should - do both.

Capital gains tax and income tax on millionaires. State, County, and City.

If they raise the state and county too high, we can always ramp it down in the city next session.

10

"Carlyle could have his more expansive tax if he wanted to."

O.M.G.

Suddenly I realize where we all went wrong in the state tax wars this last 30 years or so.

12

"What's fun is that the JumpStart Seattle tax has a clause baked into it that will sunset the tax if King County or the state pass a similar measure. So, Carlyle could have his more expansive tax if he wanted to. Only if it were at the same rate as the JumpStart tax, though."

Considering the EHT became, to anti-taxers state-wide, The Tax So Odious Even Liberal Seattle Rebelled Against It, I doubt anyone making liberal policy on the state level wants another failed Seattle tax as an easy counter-example. The attempt by one city to force the state's hand ("Only if it were at the same rate as the JumpStart tax, though") is another needless provocation. Little wonder Sen. Carlyle doesn't like it.

13

He is right. It should be statewide or at least a tri-county tax. Going it alone will hurt Seattle and the city council will piss away the revenue with no accountability or results.

14

I was a fan of our last small head tax. It wasn't convincing any company to leave. But this big one, taxing based on where people work, when these people are already working from home? It's an easy move for every company to just ask them to keep working from home. Seattle gets less business and no real new tax income, and we encourage sprawl.

The right answer is a state income or wealth tax. That won't drive employers anywhere - all the other states already have income taxes already. "But it's hard" isn't an excuse.

15

+1 for Matt. The foe of the tax is geography, which is not a fake science.


Please wait...

and remember to be decent to everyone
all of the time.

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