A State Income Tax

I think it is about time for Washington State to adopt a state income tax. I know the thought of paying "more taxes" always makes people hit the panic button and freak out. I think that if people would sit down and really think about it they would see that it could be a good thing for both them and the state if handled properly.

First lets consider a few things:

1) Right now most of the state income comes from the 6.5% sales tax (plus most cities have their own sales tax).
2) Sales tax is an inherently regressive tax.
3) Although food is exempt from sales tax other necesseties like clothing are not.
4) The gas tax weighs heavily on the less wealthy because they cannot afford to live close to their jobs as rents push them away from city centers. I'm not saying that we should reduce the gas tax but reducing other tax burdens would help the poor deal with this.

Now I'm not for doing away with the sales tax and replacing it with a state income tax but I think we should be able to reduce the sales tax and replace the lost revenue with an income tax that is more progressive. The state income tax should probably have the first say $20,000 for a single adult $28,000 for a couple and x% more for each kid would be tax exempt and then a small income tax would kick in above that level. I'm just pulling those numbers out with a SWAG but they could be adjusted based on the state poverty level somehow to make sure the poor aren't burdened more then they are now.

King County Executive Ron Sims had a plan to introduce a state income tax back in 2004 when he was running in the primary for Governor but his plan would have abolished the state sales tax all together and replaced it with a graduated income tax that would have been the highest in the country.

I thinks a combined approach of the sales tax and a small income tax focussed mainly on the upper middle and upper class would be the best way to go.

What the Hell?

I got a full color glossy 9"x20" (roughly) folded advertisement in the mail today from the Washington State Democratic Central Committee. The front page is a heart rending photo of a little girl in a field of boots, rifles and helmet representing soldiers killed in Iraq and the text, "Five Years, 4,000 lives lost." Open to the middle and it says in a bold headline" Can we end the endless war?" over a two page photo of two people dressed in fatigues holding their children (again a heart rending photo.) So far so good, I'm thinking this is some kind of ad for Obama or some national group that is against the occupation. Inside the photo, however, is "Vote Democratic in the August 19th Primary" and under the photo is "Don't wait until November. Send a powerful message right now from Washington State that can be heard loud and clear in the other Washington." the back of the ad list the candidates for Governor, AG, State Treasurer and Lands Commissioner that are supported by the Democratic party.

What the hell? They are playing the "War Card" to push people in Washington State to vote for Democrats? Look, I think the Iraq Occupation has been a debacle, but I want to know what the hell that has to do with voting Democratic in the Washington State Primary. With the possible exception of the Governor how the hell does voting Democratic in the Washington State Primary:
(1) send ANY kind of message to the "Other Washington" and (2) have anything to do with the Iraq Occupation - at all.

The candidates that the Washington State Democratic Central Committee is pushing in the mailer are important in the state. They set policy and have a lot to do with keeping the state one of the most progressive in the country. But, if the WSDCC had the money to send out a four page glossy full color advertisement why did they waste it on Iraq Occupation Mongering instead of tackling important STATE issues like Transportation, the projected Budget Deficit, Forest Conservation, problems with our Voting System, or expanding the use of Alternative Energy in the state. You know issues that these elected officials can do something about. What the Hell?

I'm Back!

Ah... it has been a long time since I have updated Turpentine (Note: my old blog) and lots of things have happened since. So to bring everybody up to date:

In mid-October 2004 I was diagnosed with Carpal Tunnel Syndrome so I was forced to give up much of my typing and since I have to do some at work...this blog had to suffer.

In early November 2004 - Bush was declared the winner of an election that had MORE irregularities than the last one he was declared the winner of in 2000. Not to mince words - this fucking depressed the hell out of me. To compound my depression Kerry basically gave up without a fight. He reneged on his promise to make sure every vote was counted; he really screwed the folks in Ohio.

This depression/funk lasted through Retail HELL Season (Christmas) when we store owner work 7 days a week 12 hour days, and towards the New Year when we STILL didn't have a governor here in Washington.

Then Christine Gregoire (D) was determined to have won the election for Governor by less than 150 votes after 3 counts. This gave me some hope for the future of Washington even though this result is still being disputed by the Republicans. In some of the thickest political irony I've ever seen they want to have a REVOTE. Can you see the bloody murder they would be screaming if the Democrats had suggested such a think if Rossi had won? (Not to mention Bush.)

But what finally snapped me out of my funk was Howard Dean being elected to the chair of the DNC. Now I have hope that the Democratic Party is not going to swerve to the Right to try and get votes from people that will never vote for them anyway. I think that I would rather have us fail and be true to our values and ideas than try to squirm and weasel our way into victory.

Coincidentally, my carpal tunnel symptoms seem to have lessened so I can type now. I even got another letter to the editor published in the Seattle PI, this one about how the Republicans are trying to twist FDRs words into an endorsement for their "private/personal" Social Security accounts. The letter I was responding to is here.

Thanks for stopping by...see ya soon.

Scott

We're Doing Our Job in Washington State.

We're doing our job in Washington State.

How are you doing in your state?

Some new local polls came out today. Despite the huge margin of error +/- 5% and ridiculously small number of people polled (405) it is still good news for Washington State.

Kerry 52%
Bush 38%

Governor
Gregoire (D) 49%
Rossi (R) 38%

Senate
Murray (D) 57%
Nethercutt (R) 37%

Nethercutt, by the way, ran for congress in Spokane(WA-5) on an anti professional politician platform. He pledged to only serve 3 terms. Five terms later he's now running for senate. Ya gotta like a guy who keeps his word huh? With any luck though we can grab his seat away from the Republicans, its not likely but you never know.

WA State Primary Results

Well, its not looking too good for Alice Woldt. She's about 900 votes behind and probably most of the absentee ballots have probably been counted.

Even though she didn't win I think she did pretty good coming in with 48% of the vote since Sommers has been a Rep for the 36th District for 32 years. I hope this gives a wake up call to Sommers that she isn't necessarily a shoe in and she needs to keep in touch with what her consituants want or next time she just might not scrape by.

Washington State Primaries

The Washington State Primaries are tomorrow. This is the first time Washington has had a closed primary meaning you can only vote in one parties primary. Before this year we had what was called a blanket primary where you could vote for anyone you wanted regardless of party. I guess the Democrats and Republicans were afraid someone would sabotage their primary and sued the state to change the system and ... viola! Personally I feel if the politcal parties are so interested in demanding a certain type of system they should pay for the primary themselves.

Anyway. There are two races in the Democratic Primary that I am particularly interested in. The race for governor and our 36th District State Rep. In both races the person I'm voting for was not endorsed by the major local papers, but my picks did coincide with the recomendations of a local biweekly Eat the State. (Which is a great alternative free paper - go visit and donate to keep them going)

My recomendations are:

Governor

Both of the Democratic candiates for governor are qualified Christine Gregoire is the Attorney General of Washington so she has a handle on state wide issues, and Ron Sims is the King County Executive so he has experience running the second largest government in the state (after the state govenment. The deciding factor for me was that Ron Sims wants to try to reverse the regressive tax structure of the state by implementing a state income tax, eliminating state sales tax, and reworking the business taxes. Gregoire things the idea of a state income tax is ridiculous and will not even consider it.

My vote: Ron Sims


36th District Rep

Helen Sommers has been one of the two reps for my district for 32 years. She is the longest serving state rep and chair of the comittee responsible for writing the state budget. Alice Woldt is a former chairman of the King County Democratic Party, founding member of S.N.O.W., Puget Sound coalition for peace and justice and most recently Executive Director, SAGE (Seattle Alliance for Good Jobs and Housing for Everyone). Woldt is a little more liberal than I usually lean, a little too peacenik, but Sommers doesn't seem to have the right budget priorities. She allowed funding to be cut to important social services and didn't implement voter initiative mandated teacher salary increases. I understand that money is tight but maybe if we had planned a little bit better in the past we'd have money for these priorities now. Anyway after 32 years I think a little change is in order.

My vote: Alice Woldt