WA State Taxation - The Politician's Ping Pong Ball

No need to raise taxes for McCleary

By Liv Finne, Washington Policy Center

The public outcry against Sound Transit’s unfair and excessive car tab taxes has painfully illustrated how public officials make life hard for working families when they impose high taxes.  The one message the public has successfully delivered to lawmakers this session, big time, is that high taxes are deeply unpopular.

Fortunately, lawmakers from both parties are listening. There seems to be little or no appetite among state lawmakers to go on record supporting a tax increase. Senate leaders say a tax increase is not needed (state revenues are due to increase by $2.6 billion under current tax law). And so far, House leaders have not even scheduled a vote on their budget plan to impose $4.8 billion in new taxes.

Still, House leaders are insisting the McCleary school funding case requires Washington families to accept even higher business tax rates, higher sales taxes, and even an income tax on investments. The House budget would also repeal the popular 1 percent limit on annual property tax collections, a policy approved by voters in 2001 and confirmed by a bill passed by both parties and signed by Gov. Gregoire in 2007.

State budget figures show that new taxes are not needed to comply with McCleary.

Today, education spending is at an all-time high, having increased by 34 percent over the last four years. Current state spending on public education is $18.2 billion, or about $12,000 per student from all sources, the most money ever.

These spending levels are due to increase. Both the House and Senate budgets provide large increases for education, so we know school spending is going to go up. The Senate budget would increase education spending by $3.7 billion, an enormous increase, by providing levy equity across the state, and adding in law a guaranteed per-student funding level of $12,500.

This level of spending increase clearly meets the McCleary standard, coming as it does on top of huge spending increases in recent years, and can be enacted without increasing the tax burden state officials impose on the people of Washington.

The House plan seeks to impose more taxes, but it also doubles down on the current system, providing no meaningful reforms. The Senate plan not only has the virtue of boosting education spending again, it would also provide progressive, forward-looking reforms, like guaranteeing a set per-student spending level for every student in the state, so every child learns.

The budget numbers amply demonstrate that state lawmakers can increase spending, comply with McCleary and enact meaningful education reforms — all without raising taxes.

Liv Finne is the director of the Washington Policy Center

Update: Income Tax Off Table... for now.

Next time!

According to Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh, this is the new motto of the Republicans in the Swamp. Now their promise - after telling the country that all they needed was a majority in the House, then a majority in the Senate, and finally the White House - is that they'll take care of really making changes in the next session of Congress. Really?

On top of that, the mantra of the Republicans (a.k.a. government workers in the Swamp) success is now claiming they got more money for their pet projects than what the Democrats got! That's funny, I thought whole point of getting Trump elected because of his promises on the campaign trail that he would reverse the Democrat's programs and spending to save this country from becoming full-blown socialist!

So, Ann Coulter and Rush Limbaugh are both saying, "What's the point of voting Republican anymore?" I'm beginning to wonder, when what I feared may happen,  actually does. That's not funding the wall, keeping a modified version of Obamacare, funding Planned Parenthood, etc.

The American Flag: A Symbol of Hate Speech on Campuses?

Here's a video which is an interview by Ami Horowitz of a student - who happens to be an illegal immigrant going to college on federal student loans - who wrote a bill to ban the flag on college campuses; must be in California. Watch it and be prepared to have your mind "blown", as Ami says in the clip.

This young man equates the American flag on a par with the Nazi, or ISIS, flags being evil and oppressive! Who brainwashed this dude? Listen carefully to his comment at the 1:20 mark to the question about how much it was supported on his college campus.

This is a prime example, in my view, of just how effectively twisted and perverted the younger generations and foreigners who come to this country to take advantage of the benefits and opportunities here, are, while doing their best to bite the very "hand that feeds them." Watch, and you'll understand better why I say this.

The Limits of Free Speech

The Limits Of Free Speech 

by Richard A. Epstein via Policyed.org

The First Amendment allows us to speak our mind and stand up for what we believe in. However, the limits on free speech are rooted in the principle that we’re not allowed to harm others to get what we want. That’s why we’re not allowed to use to speech for force, fraud, or defamation.

Millennials Losing Their Hair From Stress

Rush Limbaugh Show: May 2, 2017 – Hour #2 Transcript of caller Colleen of Thousand Oaks, CA

Rush: Colleen, I'm glad you waited, how are you doing?

Colleen: I'm doing great Rush, it is such an honor to talk to you. My dad turned me on to you when you were back at Sacramento, and I was in college at kind of the same age as millennials are now. And, I wanted to talk to you about your comments on the millennial story about becoming so stressed out they're losing their hair.

Rush: Yes.

Colleen: And your comparison of our parents, the “Greatest Generation”.

Rush: Yes

Colleen: And, uh... I have a son, a millennial son in college, and, I also, um... do advising to a lot of “start ups”, so... I'm around millennials, and I kind of see where they're coming from, and what they're going through. And I can tell you, um... first hand, that they are stressed out and I think, for valid reasons. You know, um... while we don't have a WWII, and we don't have Kruschev, we've got Kim Jung Un - you were talking about it earlier, threatening nuclear war – we've got Islamic terrorists bombing, and mowing people down with trucks, and stabbing people on a weekly basis, so, while they don't have the perspective we do, um... it scary! Right? But, um... I think what's worse, actually, um... our parents, when they went to WWII, they were part of a proud and patriotic country. Everyone was pulling together, and, our millennials are constantly being told from the press, and political leaders, and professors, and celebrities that we all hate each other. We're all prejudiced, the world is a disaster, the United States is evil and oppressive, the Constitution is outdated and irrelevant, and this is all coming from people they respect. And their parents think they're doing a great job teaching them values and to stand up for what they believe in, when what they're really teaching them is it's okay to disrespect the country, and the President, and that everyone you disagree with is a fascist and so it's okay to scream and boycott and get violent, instead of being an adult and engaging in dialog. And, it just breaks my heart. We are ruining this generation.

Rush: That is sooo, well stated! I really... the only thing I would add in your list of things that they're scared of... and I think the big one, honest to God, and there's nothing more disappointing to me, more frustrating and it makes me just wanna scream myself, is they have literally been made actively afraid that the planet will not support them by the time when they reach their parents age – 65 …

Colleen: Absolutely!

Rush: They REALLY believe this crap. They totally believe it and it does have them scared to death.

Colleen: Yea! They're...

Rush: But all the other things you mentioned are correct too. They've bought all of... the problem that I have with your recitation is right on the money... um, the... I wish you could go through it again, because I thought of something at the moment you said something...

Colleen: Well, I have all my notes, so let me know.

Rush: No, no... I, that's not necessary. While you were going through the list of things that they're told, that they're taught to hate, why do they buy it? Why do they fall for it. That's what's frustrating to me. Why do they accept all of this stuff, um... when I was there...

Colleen: Because they don't, they don't have you as a parent, my son thinks of me as a parent, I don't mean to toot my own horn, but the people they trust the most...

Rush: Are the doom-sayers! The people they trust the most are the doom-sayers, the negativists, the pesimists!

Colleen: That's why they fall for it. Because they have no voice they trust.

Rush: Well... I have to go. I have a time break I can't move. Thanks so much! Music...

Rush: What she's referring to is the story I mentioned earlier about the millennials that are going bald from too much stress, and I said it's nothing like our parents and grandparents and being dragged out from college and being sent to Europe and Japan for WWII, after having lived through the depression, and the communists come calling and saying they're going to burry your grand-kids. That's what she was reacting to.

Blogger's Footnote: I share this transcript of this caller because I believe she's got a very legitimate set of points for those millennials who don't have the kind of guidance from their parents that gives them the understanding what's going on. I say this from experience myself... our younger of two daughters is also a millennial who just spent her last 10 years after high school going to college - with intermittent years of working to earn up savings - to get a double major (Zoology/Geology: Suma Cum Laude). She's had her share of stresses with a huge student loan debt hanging over her, and has had some difficulty just getting a job in our region which has a fairly strong economic situation compared to other regions of the country. However, I know that she's much more "stable" as a millennial in her outlook than others I've encountered in my daily activities because she's a conservative who keeps herself informed by listening to Rush and supports Pres. Trump to turn things around from the bleak situation she watched during her college days over the past eight years.

Foxworthy's "Fence Test"

You can't get any more accurate than this!

This is straight forward country thinking.

by Jeff Foxworthy

Which side of the fence?

If you ever wondered which side of the fence you sit on, this is a great test!

If a Republican doesn't like guns, he doesn't buy one.

If a Democrat doesn't like guns, he wants all guns outlawed.

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If a Republican is a vegetarian, he doesn't eat meat.

If a Democrat is a vegetarian, he wants all meat products banned for everyone.

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If a Republican is homosexual, he quietly leads his life.

If a Democrat is homosexual, he demands legislated respect.

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If a Republican is down-and-out, he thinks about how to better his situation.

If a Democrat is down-and-out he wonders who is going to take care of him.

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If a Republican doesn't like a talk show host, he switches channels.

A Democrat demands that those they don't like be shut down.

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If a Republican is a non-believer, he doesn't go to church.

A Democrat non-believer wants any mention of God and religion silenced.

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If a Republican decides he needs health care, he goes about shopping for it, or may choose a job that provides it.

If a Democrat decides he needs health care, he demands that the rest of us pay for his.

If a Republican is unhappy with an election, he grumbles and goes to work the next day.

If a Democrat is unhappy with an election, he burns down a Starbucks, throws rocks at cops and takes two-weeks off for therapy.

THIRTEEN NEWSPAPERS & THE PEOPLE WHO READ THEM

1. The Wall Street Journal is read by the people who run the country.

2. The Washington Post is read by people who think they run the country.

3. The New York Times is read by people who think they should run the country, and who are very good at crossword puzzles.

4. USA Today is read by people who think they ought to run the country but don't really understand The New York Times.

5. The Los Angeles Times is read by people who wouldn't mind running the country, if they could find the time and if they didn't have to leave Southern California to do it.
6. The Boston Globe is read by people whose parents used to run the country.

7. The New York Daily News is read by people who aren't too sure who's running the country and don't really care as long as they can get a seat on the train.

8. The New York Post is read by people who don't care who is running the country as long as they do something really scandalous, preferably while intoxicated.

9. The Chicago Tribune is read by people that are in prison that used to run the state, and would like to do so again, as would their constituents who are currently free on bail.

10. The Miami Herald is read by people who are running another country, but need the baseball scores.
11. The San Francisco Chronicle is read by people who aren't sure if there is a country or that anyone is running it; but if so, they oppose all that they stand for. There are occasional exceptions if the leaders are gay, handicapped, minority, feminist, atheists, and those who also happen to be illegal aliens from any other country or galaxy, provided of course, that they are not Republicans.

12. The National Enquirer is read by people trapped in line at the grocery store.

13. The Seattle Times is read by people who have recently caught a fish and need something to wrap it in.