February 19, 2010
More on Gregoire's Ill-Fated Sin Taxes
The Mackinac Center predicts that the cigarette tax will make half of all cigarettes illegally smuggled in to Washington State.
I don't know if that's true or not, but what I do know is that over half of Gregoire's proposed $605m tax increases are "sin taxes" (on candy, gum, bottled water, carbonated beverages, and tobacco); I know that these "sin taxes" will serve -- and are designed -- to discourage the behavior being taxed; I know Gregoire knows these things; and, therfore, I know that Gregoire's prediction of $345m in revenue from these taxes is dishonest.
I also know, by the way, that if our state hadn't abandoned Priorities of Government, they couldn't lie to the people and say they need these taxes to fund "vital services": they would have to be honest and say they can already fund "vital services" with the money they have, because PoG would require them to fund those things first. Instead, they choose to fund non-vital things first, so they can strengthen their case for tax increases for "vital services."
And while I'm at it, I also know that if Gregoire and the Democrats had kept spending to 10-15 percent in her first term, instead of the 33 percent we actually had, we would not have to raise taxes to fund anything today.
As usual, this whole thing is just long-term scheming to get bigger, and bigger, and bigger government. "Never let a crisis go to waste."
Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.
Posted by pudge at February 19, 2010
12:52 PM | Email This
1. I oppose government largess at every opportunity.
BUT:
I say GOOD to sticking tax increases at the voter base who put these clowns in office (candy). This is better than sugar daddy socialism which relies on robbing a few to pay for the many.
The majority of Washingtonians wanted these taxes, else we would not have majorities we do.
Also- no duh on the cigarettes!!! Do you pro dope retards really think a single penny will be raised on marijuana taxes when Cigarette smuggling is what it is? I can see the tribes getting rich and illegal dealers, but the tax payers get screwed as usual.
2. Andy:
The majority of Washingtonians wanted these taxes, else we would not have majorities we do.
That makes no sense, since the people also passed I-960.
It's a polite fiction, that not even the Founders believed, that everything legislators do is the literal will of the people. If that were true, we wouldn't have burdensome elections every two years.
It is our will that these people represent us. But everything they do is not, merely because we elected them, our will.
That's like saying Tiger Woods' wife wanted him to cheat on her ...
3. actually I think it is to make the people of the state of Washington miserable enough to want to replace those taxes with a income tax.
4. Tax the hell out of thieving wealthy Republicans. That would close the deficit in 5 minutes!
5. The fundamental rule of economics always win out. The more expensive something becomes, the less of it you get. These new taxes will not raise near the amount of money projected.
6. You're absolutely right, Crusader! Eat the Rich! Republicans hate poor people, old people and blacks. If only everyone was adhered to benevolent socialism, great Democrats, who give so much of their money to the poor, people like George Soros and Joe Biden and don't forget Al Gore!
The real evil out there is people like Dick Cheney. After all, we all know he gave 80% of his income to programs for poor inner-city black children just to assuage his guilt and buy his way into his hypocritical heaven.
7. Pudge,
You refer to Priorities of Government. Is this something official from Olympia or was it developed by a third party (party, watch-dog group)? Do you have a link to what you are referring to?
I agree that spending should have been curtailed earlier. It isn't like there wasn't early indicators of the recession coming, nor history of impact of recessions on revenues. The depth of the recession probably couldn't have been predicted. I would further state that CG and the legislature should not have also been robbing the Rainy Day fund to pay for programs when they didn't have the revenue coming in during a non-recession time period. The Rainy Day fund should be saved to even out revenue flow during recessionary periods and not as an additional revenue source.
8. PoG is something Olympia pretends to follow, that they used to actually follow, that Locke helped push (amazingly enough ... I was shocked when he did, but gave him full credit for it).
Here's some links:
OFM.wa
EFF
But they've tossed it away now. It's nonoperative and they provide only lip service to it.
9. Hey pudge, can you get a rope on that Eyman guy? He's turning into a REAL horse's ass. Maybe Goldy was right all along about Tim Eyman.
10. Look- the young and dumb "intellectuals" put both Gregoire AND the Democrat majority into power, not to mention Obama and the current crowd in DC.
It's total bunk for Americans to go back and say - well we didn't know or we were lied to. Please- voters are either really really stupid- or they really really wanted this or they voted Republican.
I don't think the GOP gets a pass for this at the national level either.
Republican = Spend
Democrat = Tax and Spend BIG
----
I'm not pessimistic on this.
I think the Democrats have over played their hand and they may have turned away 3 generations of voters. It took them 12 years to recover from Jimmy Carter.
Once a voter leaves the Democrat party, they never return. They'll have to wait 12 years for another batch of ignorant voters who don't get it.
11. could someone tell me when petroleum became a toxic substance.that is what the witch said,and then she said the oil companies would not pass the tax on to the consumers.that is the mindset of a life long GOV employee.no common sense.all you moonbats try to get thru a day with not using anything that comes from petroleum.see how easy life would be without this toxic substance.gregoire is a DMF!!!!
12. This is really just another example of how deeply in bed Gregoire is with the Indian trribes. Smokers and Smokless users head to the reservations and casinos to buy their cigs and chew, because that's where they can get it for cheap.
13. I've seen how the money gets spent, and if you think State Employee pay is the problem, you are being misled.
I don't think they should or will get any increase in pay, and facts are that their costs are going through the roof like everyone else.
The real rape of the taxpayer is in executive salaries, the extensive use of consultants, and duplication of services and support. The consultants who prospect and mine the State on every project come from both sides of the political road, my friends. I've seen it all in action.
14. Ihave one? when are the seats of these looney politicians available so they can be pink slpped (meaning Lisa Brown and cronnies)I'd love nothing
more than for chrissy to be a lame duck governor that has happened before!!then pink slip her in 2012!!Ican dream right.
15. Can we get Chris Cristie to run for governor in WA? That guy is kickin' it in NJ. Doing things we ought to totally be doing here in WA. He understands that state government exists to serve the people. Not the other way around. He is a hero for the people of NJ!
16. Andy -
Democrat = Tax and Spend BIG
Democrat = Spend HUGE and Tax HUGE and then Spend some more.
17. Yes, Crusader, let's tax the people actually providing what little jobs there are now even more, for they haven't earned any reward for taking the risk of opening a business, have they!
Then, once everyone who _used_ to provide employment is as poor as the rest of us (Equality of outcome theory of economics at it's finest), then mother government can come in and employ us all!
18. Sounds like redistribution of wealth to me. Since when has that worked that well? Progessive
game plan didn't work then either!
19. Taxes on things I don't use for services I don't need. I have no problem with these taxes, they're going to hit the people who want higher taxes the hardest. Let them pay for their own programs.
20. Most folks buy bottled water as a matter of convenience. Double the price thru taxation and people will stop buying such products. So much for your windfall, Queenie.
22. Dufus: no one's buying it. Really.
23. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is buying the thought out version pudge.
U.S. High Schools in Eight States to Implement World-Class Instructional Systems and Examinations
Eight states will join with the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE) to use the world's best instructional systems and examinations to dramatically increase the number of students who leave high school ready to succeed in college. Students who show they are ready to do college level work will be able to get their diploma and enroll in college as early as the end oftheir sophomore year in high school.
In today's announcement from Washington, NCEE President Marc Tucker announced that Connecticut, Kentucky, Maine, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island and Vermont will work with NCEE through a grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to improve the performance of high school students in these eight states by adopting powerful instructional systems that actually set the international standards.
And if you are going to use and attempt to capitalize upon Milton Friedman's idea about taking advantage of crisis in politics, give the man the credit he deserves for institutionalizing the shock doctrine as our basic function. Really, you want to give credit for Friedman's idea to big spending big government types?
"Only a crisis, actual or perceived, produces real change. When the crisis occurs the actions that are taken depend on the ideas that are lying around.
That, I believe, is our basic function: to develop alternatives to existing policies, to keep them alive and available until the politically impossible becomes the politically inevitable." --- Preface to "Capitalism and Freedom" Milton Friedman, 1982
24. I'm sure the tribes are gearing up to sell bottled water as we speak.
25. They might as well call these anti-vending taxes. I may be biased to know about this, but there are 13, that's right 13 bills in the State Legislature that are extremely harmful to the vending industry. So when you go up to a vending machine for a 20oz pop and it is $2 remember who's idea it was. The vending companies WILL pass all of this to their customers.
26. MikeBS: your comment is completely off-topic.
27. MikeBS,
You've always been able to challenge courses and graduate early. This is nothing but the latest fad in doing that very thing.
Graduating early is a non-issue; what we need to do is hold back students who are not ready to move on to the next grade. That's the failure of the educational system.
And Gregoire and the Legislature throwing more dollars at it via these ill-conceived sin taxes will not make the situation any better.
28. The tax and spend situation in this country is becoming comical. This is our country, not the politicians. We should throw their asses in jail for what they have done. Then strip them of all their personal assets, repeal about every law the retards have passed the last hundred years or so. Then, go after the environmentalist wackos and turn them into biodiesel. Have I missed anything?
29. Yeah mark,
We should send Progressives to Shick Shadel to cut their addiction to government and collectivism. Give them 10 days and they could give MikeBS his life back.
30. I like your post...mark
31. The Graceful Exit Term Limit
Most voters that I speak with are in agreement that our state legislators need to by refreshed(recycled) and allowed to be reintroduced to life outside of public office. To have a democracy and representative form of government we will need to stop the career politicians from getting their claws into their elected position. As demostrated recently by the Washington State legislature, the current senators and representatives are NOT representing the people.
To assist in correcting the state of the state, I present the Graceful Exit Term Limit. The trick is to get the reps and senators to actually vote for this, so what I propose is the following:
1) any rep or senator currently in office during the vote will be allowed to run 1 more term after their current term, regardless of how many previous terms. So this would allow for a politician to not fear for their livelihood if they are actually relying on the paycheck. They can look good by voting for what the people need and want, and be secure in knowing they have a little more time to put their resume together.
2) reps will have a term limit of 2 terms and senators 2 terms
I think this would make the legislators look really good. It would also allow for new and fresh ideas to get in. It is fairly obvious that our state needs some new ideas, but the same old people keep getting elected. It is time for REAL hope and change in Washington State
32. The Graceful Exit Term Limit
Most voters that I speak with are in agreement that our state legislators need to by refreshed(recycled) and allowed to be reintroduced to life outside of public office. To have a democracy and representative form of government we will need to stop the career politicians from getting their claws into their elected position. As demostrated recently by the Washington State legislature, the current senators and representatives are NOT representing the people.
To assist in correcting the state of the state, I present the Graceful Exit Term Limit. The trick is to get the reps and senators to actually vote for this, so what I propose is the following:
1) any rep or senator currently in office during the vote will be allowed to run 1 more term after their current term, regardless of how many previous terms. So this would allow for a politician to not fear for their livelihood if they are actually relying on the paycheck. They can look good by voting for what the people need and want, and be secure in knowing they have a little more time to put their resume together.
2) reps will have a term limit of 2 terms and senators 2 terms
I think this would make the legislators look really good. It would also allow for new and fresh ideas to get in. It is fairly obvious that our state needs some new ideas, but the same old people keep getting elected. It is time for REAL hope and change in Washington State
33. @31, Charlie...Term limits have been called for many times in dealing with our Representatives. However, the Politicians would Never allow such a requirement to be put in place. The True Statesmen who would support such a, measure are too rare and few in their numbers for any restrictions of that nature to their employment to ever be allowed to be passed. An Initiative by the People to get it on the ballot for the Vote of the People would be the only route that could be successful. Even then, the "Powers to Be" would do every trick and game-play to disallow such an attempt by the People. My Fear is: If the power of the Vote of the People this Election Cycle does not begin to turn things around...An open Revolution may result.