Our Washington Legislature is quietly raising taxes. They can do it without a vote of the suckers aka taxpayers if they can get a 2/3 vote. And when is a fee increase a tax increase? Always.
Also notice the trick: In many cases they are not raising your taxes; they are allowing your city or county to do it. But what will the county say? "The Legislature forced us to raise your taxes; they cut our funding, so we had to."
Is 10 per cent high enough sales tax? With King County's extra tax on restaurant meals for Paul Allen's stadium (or was it John Ellis's Mariners stadium?) I have already paid 10% sales tax. So will you vote to raise it above 10%?
Spokesman.com | Tax, fee plans may induce sticker shock
OLYMPIA - As Olympia struggles to agree on a major tax plan to send to voters in November, they're also talking about a lot of small things that will never appear on any ballot - but that are still likely to cost you. Among them:The Big One this year: Your Legislature hopes you will fall for "it's for health care."- Letting cities impose a 6 percent tax on water and sewer districts.
- Allowing state college tuition increases of nearly 30 percent over the next two years.
- Letting local school districts collect tens of millions of dollars more in property taxes.
- Raising some court fees by $50 to $200.
- Tripling the $50 "document fee" that auto dealers can charge buyers.
- Letting counties tack a new 6 percent tax onto power, garbage, cable-TV and other utility bills for residents who live outside cities.
- Charging a new, voluntary $5-a-car annual fee for state parks.
- Boosting the costs of hunting and fishing licenses, as well as raising licensing fees for thousands of health care workers.
At the state level, House lawmakers will hold a hearing today on their leading tax plan. It would boost the state sales tax by about a third of a cent for the next three years. If voters agree to that in a statewide vote in November, the state would collect hundreds of millions of dollars to help pay for health care programs across Washington.If you believe this tax increase would be for health care... Gullible! It's to pay for your Legislature's foolish overcommitment to spending in 2008.
Update: The Seattle Times has found some politicians who claim it's not bait and switch (really Washington Monument syndrome) to fund second and third-priority functions while holding top priorities hostage unless the taxpayers vote for higher taxes.
During a public hearing this morning, anti-tax activist Tim Eyman accused lawmakers of "the oldest trick in the book - fund non-essential programs with existing taxes, then hold essential programs hostage, demanding a voter-approved ransom to get them back."Cross posted at Economic Freedom. Posted by Ron Hebron at April 20, 2009 09:50 AM | Email This"Dante's Inferno describes the seven circles of hell. There needs to be an 8th circle added and reserved for politicians who are willing to throw the elderly and the disabled under the bus, defund their programs, and then exploit them, using them as props and pawns in their never-ending pursuit of higher taxes," he said.
You're right. There are a lot of countries that have higher taxation than we do. How cheeky of us to be grumpy about our government working overtime to have us become like those countries.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 20, 2009 10:32 AMHow can we determine whether we have "reason to whine" in your words when your link provides this gem?
This is a list of tax rates around the world. It is focused on three types of taxes: corporate taxes, individual taxes and sales taxes (value added taxes (VAT) / goods and services taxes (GST) / sales). It is not intended to represent the true tax burden to either the corporation or the individual in the listed country.
Perhaps you could provide something with a little more relevance?
Posted by: komodo_dragon on April 20, 2009 10:46 AMEven if your Wikipedia "research" DID suggest we have comparatively low tax rates--and, as komodo pointed out, it did not--what is the principle here? Should residents just shut up and make ever more sacrifices to pay for ever more bloated bureaucracy and just keep reminding themselves, "well, it's not the worst place I could be..."?
If "it's not the worst" is the most confident boast you can make about a policy, maybe it's time to look into some new policies.
Posted by: chip on April 20, 2009 11:27 AMAnd I guess that makes MamaMia's information virtually worthless. Much like leftist views.
I do have a question for MamaMia though. Seeing as that you obviously believe that we aren't taxed enough, I assume that you always send in a couple of thousand extra on April 15th and do the same to the state to cover what you believe to be a low sales tax rate.
If you are like the other leftist I know that uses the "other country" argument, you probably cheat more than any person on the right side of the spectrum.
Posted by: G Jiggy on April 20, 2009 11:31 AMI fail to see how 15 percent growth in government is a death knell to services. Can somebody straighten me out?
Posted by: G Jiggy on April 20, 2009 11:38 AMReport to your nearest government re-education center for processing.
Those that disparage Tea parties focus only on the taxes, but this is the totally wrong message. What causes higher taxes? Why would government think they need more revenues?
S-P-E-N-D-I-N-G!! Spending. Spending.
The protests were much more about out-of-control government spending than they were about taxation. As G Jiggy and RJK point out, the state is receiving as much revenue as it did in the last biennium , it just isn't enough to cover all of the spending they want to do.
The federal government is even worse.
Cut government spending and they won't need to keep increasing the taxes.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 20, 2009 11:58 AMOne thing is for sure; continually accepting an incremental bloat and growth of the cost of living, increase in regulation, spending, taxation, red-tape, etc. in government is not going to make our lives easier or happier.
Posted by: Jeff B. on April 20, 2009 12:17 PMEverplace is the "best place on the face of the earth in which to live"
Thank god we have as our union reps Tim Eyeman on the outside and Chopper in the henhouse, have attached boat anchors to the runaway state spending
or else we'ed be in a bigger and uglier mess.
BTW why did it take Sound Transit 13+ years to run a lightrail train sort of to the airport and destroy a couple neighborhoods in the process?
Notice they impose fees and taxes on things you need like water and sewer?
Tony Soprano would be proud!
Posted by: Sam Adams on April 20, 2009 02:14 PMMamamia reminds me of a young lady who waxed lyrical of all the wonderful amenities her country provided, then her mother walked in and stated that because of all of those wonderful amenities, they had to have two jobs...one to pay taxes and one blackmarket job to earn a living. Be careful what you wish for!
Posted by: Freedom on April 20, 2009 02:30 PMGosh, whatever could have changed. . . . .seems to have happened around. . .mid-late January?
Posted by: Frank Black on April 20, 2009 02:56 PMWell that does it! No more tennis for me!
Look at K-12 funding, for example. $15.15 billion spent in the last biennium. Inflation at 3.2% for the last biennium, and enrollment DOWN .25%. Department of Education requests a 10.4% increase in funding to $16.72 billion for the next biennium. The State House proposes 5.5% increase and Senate offers 4.7% increases.
Result: claims of massive cuts. All non-continuing teachers to be fired. Continuing teachers may be fired. COLA gone. Programs gone. The sky is falling!
Reality: K-12 funding up 2.5% or 1.7% over last biennium, respectively, after adjusting for inflation and enrollment changes. Any need for hire taxes? Any need for the threatened cuts? Yeah, maybe the COLA, but who isn't being asked to sacrifice to get us out of this mess created by the tax and spenders from both parties?
You decide.
The $9 billion deficit myth is a similar sham. The government wanted a 22.5% increase in funding over the last biennium. They're getting $3 billion in Obama's porkulus and that should more than cover the $2.4 billion shortfall to fund current spending levels. Anything more in this economy is gravy.
But it's no different in Olympia than in Washington DC. Dems here want to exploit this mess just like Obama exploiting it at the national level to get massive expansions of government, higher taxes and spending.
Just say "NO" to this type of change. We can't afford it.
Posted by: Reality on April 20, 2009 04:29 PMBut hey, it's time for you creative, overtaxed heroes to "go Galt", and deprive us socialist leeches of your awesomeness. Don't let the perpetual-motion machine smack you in the butt, as you enter the Gulch!
Posted by: tensor on April 20, 2009 08:25 PMYour leftist fixation on the act is rather amusing. That you and anyone else using the term to discribe protesters just shows what lowlife scum you are.
To be the lying bastard your posts show you to be must mean that you live a miserable life.
It truly does suck to be you.
2010 is right around the corner. Sort of a 1994 redux, it seems.
I'm looking forward to it, so you and your fringe buddies? DO keep up the good work.
Asshole.
Posted by: hinton on April 20, 2009 08:36 PMYour leftist fixation on the act is rather amusing. That you and anyone else using the term to discribe protesters just shows what lowlife scum you are.
To be the lying bastard your posts show you to be must mean that you live a miserable life.
It truly does suck to be you.
2010 is right around the corner. Sort of a 1994 redux, it seems.
I'm looking forward to it, so you and your fringe buddies? DO keep up the good work.
Asshole.
Posted by: hinton on April 20, 2009 08:36 PMSo, are you really so stupid as to think that everyone posting here against out of control spending are "rich"? Are you "means testing" commenters?
If you totally approve of trillions in deficits and tens of trillions in debt - just say so. Then we can spend less time on your idiocy.
Posted by: SouthernRoots on April 20, 2009 09:13 PMYour most desperate, fevered wishing won't make it so, pal.
That you and anyone else using the term to discribe protesters just shows what lowlife scum you are.
Behold, the highest form of "argument" available to a Tea Bagger. You must've ruled your Jr. High School's playground. It's been all downhill since then, eh?
(At least we liberals don't throw the important word "traitor" around until it loses all meaning...)
It truly does suck to be you.
Still uncertain as to what Teabagging really means, are we? How about having a self-proclaimed "family values" guy explain it to you? They all seem extraordinarily well-versed on such practices.
To be the lying bastard your posts show you to be must mean that you live a miserable life.
I am not now, nor have I ever been, a Republican Senator in a public bathroom.
did you approve then of the additional spending by the Bush Administration? Did you think that his 200-400 billion dollar deficits were appropriate?
No, I'm not a Republican Member of Congress. Why do you ask?
What was the "deficit" under the last years before Mr. Bush?
Posted by: tensor on April 20, 2009 09:50 PMWhat was the "deficit" under the last years before Mr. Bush?
Many of those Republicans were voted out of office because of their spending. How many of the Democrats were voted out for their spending?
If you liked the Clinton "surpluses" - given to you by Republican congressmen - then you must absolutely abhor Obama's planned deficits - given to you by Democrat congressmen.
The smaller the deficit the more to like? The larger the deficit the more to hate? Or is it that if a deficit is brought to you by a Democrat, all is forgiven and anything goes?
The State has about the same amount of revenue coming in this biennium as last, yet they don't have enough money for their spending plans. Are you ok with this as well?
1 This is not the time to tax more in this state, but every fee, 40% increase in College tuition, 1 Billion in new sales tax (that's what the .03 % gives these thieves), $1100 in new property taxes (in my case, a 15% INCREASE IN ONE YEAR) after her campaign comercials showed all those elderly people waving signs about Gregoire and the Dems passing a 1% Limit. What lying thieves - Gregoire is a disgrace in this state.
A disaster that just keeps on taking.
And they just passed a 6 Billion dollar education program with no funding arrangement attached
I hope they feel real good about that one. It's funding must be planned for next session.
I week left - Sunday is their last session - Tell every one of them all week long! Keep the pressure up.
And Support the only property tax cutting proposal this session, Tim Eymans I 1033.
If Gregoire's 1% wasn't a pure F'n joke, then we can shove these massive property tax hike up their A's with I 1033 - Sign it and Vote for it
And join in any of the many new Tea Party events, which will be going on all year.
Enough is Enough!
Posted by: GS on April 20, 2009 11:22 PMsmall business people constantly tell me they're being crushed from every side; this $250-thing will be the stake in the heart; too bad;
and--as for small business historically creating jobs, lotsa luck killing the golden goose, Mr/Ms Politician; like a bunch of medeival doctors insistent on more bleedings;
whenever I pin my politicians down in an econ/tax email argument, they resort to the Alamo of lib mantras: "It's the right thing to do."
CA North here we come...
Posted by: jimmie howya-doin on April 21, 2009 05:20 AMWhat was the "deficit" under the last years before Mr. Bush?
Officially, on paper, there was no deficit, thanks to the Newt Gingrich Congress (you know, the body that - per the Constitution - writes the budget). We still spent more than we had every year, though, because off-budget expenditures increased the debt.
And we also had that little thing called 9/11 that happened BEFORE the first Bush budget. Who knows what it would have been had we not been dealt such a severe blow?
So let's see what it was after things settled out, and the after effects of 9/11 were dissipating. The last GOP/Bush budget was FY2007, and that had a deficit of $163 billion. Terrible, wasteful spending - you NEVER spend more than you bring in!
But that's about 9% of the $1.8 TRILLION deficit of the Obama/Pelosi/Reid triumvirate.
So you must really be livid at your chosen Obamassiah for his wanton more-than-order-of-magnitude increase in spending over the last GOP/Bush deficit.
Everything you need to understand is here. The GOP/Bush deficits broke $400 billion one time - in FY2004. They promptly began shrinking, dropping by about 30% each year thereafter.
Until the Slavery Party took control of the purse strings, and racked up more than $420 billion in deficits their first time out of the gate...
So what was your point?
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on April 21, 2009 08:48 AMTwo wrongs don't make a right. Hopefully you will condemn Dianne Feinstein for her corruption, just as you did Tom Delay. And just as you should be criticizing Obama's spending in light of Bush's. Somewhere inside, you know that spending our way out is not going to work.
Posted by: Jeff B. on April 21, 2009 09:15 AMKeep tabs on all those elected bums who support this nonsense and boot them out at the next election!
Posted by: Josetoyou on April 21, 2009 06:25 PMbtw, Green Lake Mark, which two neighborhoods were destroyed in the process? You bought the loony left NAACP line that light rail is a tool of racism and gentrification? Or, Mark, were there actually two neighborhoods which were destroyed??? Pray tell!
PS - light rail IS going to the airport. Unless you're too fat and lazy to walk 1k feet.
PPS - your blog failed because you filled it with urban myth and garbage. Like the post above. Nice to see you're still giving the airhead libs a run for their money.
