I started posting on HowieinSeattle in 11/04, following progressive American politics in the spirit of Howard Dean's effort to "Take Our Country Back." I decided to follow my heart and posted on seattleforbarackobama from 2/07 to 11/08.--"Howie Martin is the Abe Linkin' of progressive Seattle."--Michael Hood.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
WA: "Bill Gates’s Dad Says the Rich ‘Aren’t Paying Enough’ in Taxes"--"Initiative 1098: Signature drive begins"
Bill Gates’ father wants the Microsoft Corp. co-founder to pay more in income taxes.
Bill Gates Sr., a retired Washington state lawyer, supports a proposed ballot initiative that would require the state’s highest earners including himself and his son to pay an income tax. Washington now collects no personal income taxes.
“Poor people and middle-income people are paying too much to support the state and rich people aren’t paying enough,” Gates Sr. said in an interview yesterday in Seattle. “That’s the starting point for me.” MORE...
A state income tax has for years been the "third rail" of Washington politics, but a broad activist coalition on Wednesday night launched a signature drive to put Initiative 1098 onto the November ballot.
It would be the first time a tax reform measure, including an income tax, has been put to a public vote in nearly 40 years.
"It's been around the block several times," said former Seattle City Councilwoman Phyllis Lamphere, who held office in the early 1970s when popular Republican Gov. Dan Evans tried to reform the state tax system. Voters handed Evans his head, and then a year later re-elected him.
Even though unemployment was down in figures released Tuesday, the state is still hurting. Painful cuts have hit education and government services, and Washington is burdened with what Bill Gates Sr. told supporters is "the 50th -- the last -- state in terms of the regressivity (sic) of its tax system. MORE...
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