by MarkGriswold, 10:59 AM
So, Robert, you're sending me a letter to tell me that you're sending me a letter. How much did that cost?
Oh, and thanks for translating it into Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Russian and Vietnamese but I'm calling the ACLU and filing a suit on behalf of all the Persians you've decided to discriminate against, you racist.
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by MarkGriswold, 10:48 AM
Someone please correct me if I'm wrong but I don't think "Thanks for your thoughts." is really an answer to any question.
Zach, I know you're not Sen. Prentice but the question was really directed at anyone in Olympia who thinks raising taxes, regardless of whether it's "fair" or not, is good fiscal policy. I encourage you to read a little bit about something called the Laffer curve. And if you give me a real answer to my question I'll be happy to post it here.
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by Ron Hebron, 08:08 AM
Governor Butch Otter of Idaho welcomes Washington raising taxes, which the Legislature did yesterday. He put out the welcome mat for businesses fleeing tax increases and bad environment for business.
Was he ready for Christine Gregoire putting on the gloves? But, as we see below, her final punch is that's "simply not fair."
Otter's "love letter to our neighbors:"
It's true that a rising tide lifts all boats. But how those boats are handled makes a big difference when the tide is out and the waters get rough.Read the rest >>State governments across the country are dealing with the continuing national recession in different ways. In Idaho, our focus is on stability. Predictable tax and regulatory policies are what...
by Ron Hebron, 08:27 AM
CNN Opinion Research found that 75% - 75 per cent - of adults surveyed don't support Obama's health-care takeover bill.
Pass similar bill- 25%(Ask CNN why the total is more than 100%.)
Start work on new bill - 48%
Stop working on health care - 25%
Other (vol.) - 2%
No opinion - 1%
Feb. 12-15 2010
President Obama says to let Congress know. Let them know that you oppose his bill. Call Congress today.
And join Liberty Belle's Seattle Sons and Daughters of Liberty.
To remind yourself of the total control they are trying to force on you and your family, look at just one of many onerous features your senators...Read the rest >>
by Stefan Sharkansky, 09:25 PM
Seattle Times: "Organic coffee: Why Latin America's farmers are abandoning it"
The short answer: There aren't enough Uptight Seattleites willing to pay a high enough price for organic coffee to be a worthwhile crop for the Latin American farmers to grow. Sadly, a number of these poor farmers became poorer after the promises of "economic benefits" made by organic coffee activists failed to materialize.
Ironically, this road to an unsustainable business was paved with the good intentions of those whose grand vision is: "sustainability".
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 10:19 PM
Breaking news from the Colacurcio strip club / alleged prostitution trial. An attorney for one of the defendants claimed that:
investigatory reports show one undercover officer spent at least $16,835 buying more than 130 lap dances without making a single arrest.The usual joke about "nice work if you can get it" would seem to no longer apply after, say, at most 4 or 5 ecdysiastic experiences. But 130?
That suggests a riddle: "Q: What's bluer than a Seattle sky?"
(The punchline is left as an exercise to the reader. )
Now did those terpsichorean work sessions take place at a rate of, say, 2-3 times a week for a 1 year, or once a week for 2 1/2 years?
$16,835. $130 per, um, inspection, and no evidence to justify an arrest? The guy I'd like to meet is the supervising officer who kept signing off on those expense reports.
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 09:42 PM
First Sen. Pam Roach pulls a pistol on a legislative aide, now this: "Sen. Eide sticks to her guns on cellphone bill"
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 01:37 PM
Joni Balter, last January:
Eyman is yesterday, 1990s, early millennial with government as the boogeyman.Tim Eyman, yesterday, 10:44am:"Democrats' State Income Tax Talk is Meant to Manipulate You. Don't Buy It"
Is this a serious effort to get [the tax]? Of course not--it's being pushed with only 7 days left in their regular session...[it takes] our eyes off what they're really pushing--which is billions of dollars in higher taxes and feesJoni Balter, yesterday, 2:19pm:"The Tax Roar"
If Washington lawmakers were serious about imposing a state income tax, and really reducing the sales tax, they would not offer the idea in the final days of the legislative session...The income tax is enormously unpopular in Washington for a very simple reason: Few among us trust lawmakers to reduce taxes overall...Even an approach like raising the income tax on the wealthy while reducing the sales tax for everyone else is just a gimmick.Welcome to "Voters Want More Choices", Joni!
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 08:07 PM
(At PJTV. Free registration might be required)
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 03:41 PM
Seattle City Council President Richard Conlin shares the following quotation in his e-mail newsletter today, under the heading "Deep Thought"
"Politicians like to panic, they need activity. It's their substitute for achievement."Astute observation.
-- Sir Humphrey, character in "Yes Minister", Popular BBC TV Programme
And it would explain the Seattle City Council's 2010 Priorities.
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 12:34 PM
The Seattle Times reports on yesterday's UW student protest over budget cuts.
Concerned about their threatened "right" to a more (as opposed to slightly less) generously subsidized college education, the students shortchanged their own educations by cutting afternoon classes. Some faculty and staff joined in:
Holly Barker, an anthropology lecturer, said she let out her afternoon class early Thursday so that she could join the protest.That class being "Linguistic Ethnography", described in the catalog as "The Discourse of Climate Change", where students would "Understand how a variety of social actors construct messages about climate change".
I'll leave it to others to judge how high of a priority this particular course should have relative to other courses competing for scarce resources. One thing we do know: The instructor herself feels that the class is sufficiently unimportant that it's a better use of her students' time to go outside and block traffic.
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by Ron Hebron, 10:46 AM
The Senate had a hearing about their proposed income tax yesterday afternoon. But of course they don't call it that; they call it a sales tax reduction. Fooled you!
You didn't know about the hearing because they gave less than five hours notice. It was plenty of time for Evergreen College students to turn out in force and the Dems like what the students say. And I hear that the text of the bill wasn't available until less than an hour before the hearing.
They are saying they just "want to give voters their choice." Nice. But they don't want to give us a choice on reducing spending, just raising taxes.
A state income tax would require...Read the rest >>
by Tim Eyman, 10:44 AM
Total manipulation. Democrats in Olympia have done it for years.
Here's their scheme: propose lots of tax and fee increases, tons of them, then float a state income tax bill, get everyone fired up, then pull back, drop the income tax proposal, and then pass the other tax and fee increase bills. Afterwards, all of us breathe a sigh of relief because we 'beat back' the income tax but the tax and fee increases hit us just as hard.
Do the Democrats want a state income tax? Of course. Is this a serious effort to get it? Of course not -- it's being pushed with only 7 days left in their regular...Read the rest >>
by pudge, 10:31 AM
It's a little hard to find -- since it's not yet on the bill's page -- but the proposed substitute for the income tax bill is available under that page's Committee Materials link.
It's not an amendment, but a completely different bill. You'll want to look at Section 401 ("For income earned on or after January 1, 2011, a tax is imposed at the rate of four and five-tenths percent on all taxable income of resident individuals and on all individuals deriving income from sources in Washington for each taxable year.") and Section 504 ("There is allowed from taxable income the following standard deductions. ...").
However, there is no severability clause: so if that's the case and Section...Read the rest >>
by Stefan Sharkansky, 09:28 PM
Rep. Bill Delahunt (D., Mass.) will become the 18th Democrat to retire in advance of November elections.
"It's got nothing to do with politics," Delahunt told the Boston Globe. "Life is about change. I think it's healthy. It's time."
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 05:42 PM
Joni Balter, last January: "The Obama era of cool government makes Tim Eyman irrelevant":
Obama is the tomorrow guy who envisions a brighter future. Eyman is yesterday, 1990s, early millennial with government as the boogeyman.Since then, President Tomorrow's approval rating here has plunged from 69%-17% to 49%-47%.
Today KPLU reports that 56% of Northwest residents polled "say their state spends too much on services that aren't top priorities." The pollster adds: "We've never seen the negativity towards government at any level higher than it is now."
Voters also say by 68%-24% that the legislature was wrong to suspend taxpayer protection measure I-960, sponsored in 2007 by Tim "Yesterday" Eyman.
Balter admitted last week that last year's "impossibly high" expectations for Obama have taken a 180. Yet she dismisses the Obama era of uncool government as the "rage" of "short-attention-span voters".
Unlike Obama's calmly rational impossibly-high-expectations voters, I guess.
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 02:29 PM
WA Senate Democrats are holding a hearing today on a bill to impose a state income tax. The top rate would be 6% for married couples earning over $120,650.
The bill would also reduce property and sales taxes, but the Fiscal Note projects a net increased transfer of $4 billion from personal income into state coffers in FY2012-2013 and a total of $23 billion through 2019.
The income tax would be contingent upon voter approval of a Constitutional Amendment that would be placed on the ballot this November.
UPDATE Senate Dem leader Lisa Brown is talking up a different income tax, presumably as an amendment on the aforementioned bill:
lower the sales tax to 6 cents on the dollar, and in its place approve a "high earners" income tax.The tax would be on 4.5 percent on all income over $200,000 for individuals, $300,000 for heads of households, and $400,000 for married couples.
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by Jim Miller, 11:28 AM
Seattle Times editorial columnist Bruce Ramsey has a particularly vivid example in his latest column. Steve Capeder wanted to start a small organic farm in King County, but finally gave up because he could not navigate all the obstacles placed in his way by the county's Department of Development and Environmental Services. (It's funny how often a government department's name is the opposite of what it does.)
Example:
To pave a driveway, the blueprint — one sheet — cost $1,000. The county, which funds its permit department through fees, wanted $22,000 to review the one sheet. Capeder hired a lawyer, and they settled for $10,000.
The county regulations didn't just stop Capeder from having his farm; they...Read the rest >>
by pudge, 09:29 AM
Recession. Massive unemployment. Tax increases. Higher health insurance costs. Property values in the toilet. Loans impossible to get for most people. And today the WA Senate announces that they want to force car insurance rates higher, for an auto theft surcharge (makes you wonder who the actual thieves are).
And students who have never had a job or paid taxes -- along with teachers who have never worked in the private sector -- are protesting that we aren't giving them enough free money for college educations most of them probably won't use and don't need.
If you really want a college education, I am highly in favor of it. A college education can be a great way to prepare...Read the rest >>
by Stefan Sharkansky, 05:16 PM
(No, not that Kristin Davis)
The Kristin Davis who brokered former Gov. Eliot Spitzer's assignations with Ashley Dupre and those other versatile co-eds.
Davis describes herself as
a Libertarian/Republican, but she's old-school conservative - lower taxes, less government - not morally conservative.She is also "for school vouchers" and "against having a civilian trial for a terrorist in New York."
The Empire State could do worse and probably will.
And as I think about it, there are perhaps more similarities than differences between the world's oldest and second oldest professions. At least when the client has to empty his wallet to pay the former, he usually gets to do so with a satisfied smile on his face.
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by Stefan Sharkansky, 04:50 PM
"Governor's budget director leaving for state investment board"
Victor Moore, the governor's budget director, is leaving next month to take a job as chief operating officer with the Washington State Investment Board.As such, Moore is the financial magician who helped Mrs. Gregoire spend a $1.9 billion surplus into a $2.8 billion deficit.Moore has headed the Office of Financial Management since Gov. Chris Gregoire's first term started in January 2005.
Nothing to worry about. If Moore should perform a similar miracle with the state's $50+ billion government employee pension fund, nothing would ever happen to any of those wonderful defined benefit pensions. They're guaranteed! All they'd have to do is raise taxes on the rest of us.
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