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.
Initiative 1098 has done a great service to Washington State by fostering a dialogue on taxes, income inequality, education, and a general discussion of how government should be funded. Yet the failure of 1098 to pass in a single county and its statewide tally of 35 percent approve and 65 percent reject suggests that voters were not convinced by 1098’s course of action - at all.
Even as the overall trend in the 2010 election was anti-taxes, against tax increases, and against new types of taxes, voters rejected 1098 even though it would have meant lower property taxes for every single Washington residents (owners and renters alike). Taxes would have been raised for only 1.2% of Washingtonians. Knowing that, I-1098’s defeat on Tuesday evening is an anomaly of sorts. Why did voters not take the step and ensure that education is adequately funded for years to come, and why didn’t voters choose to approve a tax decrease for nearly everyone in Washington?
David Stockman, Ronald Reagan's budget director who once preached tax cuts, is now in favor of putting a one-time surtax on the rich. Lesley Stahl reports and finds just such a proposal on the ballot in the state of Washington.
Ronald Reagan's budget director, who once championed the positive trickle-down effects of tax cuts, now says Republicans pushing to extend the Bush tax cuts should be ashamed of themselves. David Stockman tells Lesley Stahl that to continue tax cuts as the debt grows by $100 billion a month and not have the will to cut spending is "demagoguery."
Stahl's report on the tax controversy will be broadcast on "60 Minutes" this Sunday, Oct. 31, at 7 p.m. ET/PT. (SNIP) Does the former budget director have a solution to the budget mess? He has a partial solution, which he says would cut the national debt in half: a one-time 15 percent surtax on the wealthy. Says Stockman, "Today, after serial bubble after serial bubble, the top five percent have a net worth of $40 trillion. The top five percent have gained more wealth than the whole human race had created prior to 1980," says Stockman.
But he acknowledges that such a tax would never be passed. "There's the rub," says Stockman. "We've demonized taxes…We've created almost the idea that they're a metaphysical evil."
A proposal for a similar tax on the richest residents is on the ballot in the state of Washington, which, like most states, faces huge deficits. Stahl goes there to report on it and to talk to the father of the person it will impact the most - Microsoft founder Bill Gates. Does Gates want to pay the many millions such a tax will cost him? "Well, 'wants' to is a little strong,"says his dad, Bill Gates, Sr. "He is for it. He's very willing." MORE...
Bill Gates, Sr., the father of Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, is trumpeting a new state income tax in Washington for individuals who earn more than $200,000 a year or couples who earn more than $400,000 to benefit the state's public education and health systems.
The initiative, I-1098, would impose a personal income tax of up to nine percent on Washington's highest earners, but cut property and business taxes for small firms and homeowners. Washington is currently one of seven states with no personal income tax and the state has a history of strong public opposition to taxes.
Gates, who donated $600,000 in support of the measure, told reporters in a conference call on Wednesday that the tax would provide a "vital investment" of about $2 billion in Washington's underfunded public schools and health care facilities. MORE...
"The state will benefit much more from the addition of school teachers than it will from me continuing to dump gas into my fancy private plane. If, if this tax even forced me to make that trade–off, which it does not."
Yes on 1098 campaign TV spot, in which Bill Gates Sr. describes why he helped create Initiative 1098: Washington's middle-class families are struggling and the wealthiest need to start paying their share.
Yes on 1098 campaign TV spot, in which Bill Gates Sr. describes why he helped create Initiative 1098: Washington's middle-class families are struggling and the wealthiest need to start paying their share.
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...
Andrew Calkin (Duly Noted Politics):
