I hate to dwell on this too much, but I can’t help but emphasize how incredibly dishonest the Seattle Times editorial board is when it misleadingly compares I-1098’s proposed high-earners tax to California and Oregon’s broad-based income taxes:
The new tax created by I-1098 would top out at 9 percent of adjusted gross income, with no deductions. That’s not quite the highest rate in the country: Oregon’s, at 11 percent, is at the top. But Oregon has zero sales tax. We would have high rates of sales and income taxes, which would be putting up a sign saying: Don’t invest here. Don’t create jobs here.
California did that. Its state income tax on high earners is 10.8 percent, and its sales tax mostly ranges from 8.75 to 9.75 percent. Such high levels of tax have not brought wealth and balanced budgets to California. Skilled people are leaving.
In fact, it’s not anywhere near the highest rate in the country, because I-1098’s tax is only imposed on earnings in excess of the income threshold, rather than on all income, as in Oregon and California. For example, an Oregon household earning $400,000 would pay $38,274 in state income taxes, while an equally fortunate California household would pay $33,660.
By comparison, under I-1098, a Washington household earning $400,000 would pay… well… zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis. Absolutely nothing. And according to a new OFM report, the same would be true for 98.8% of Washington households.
So this idea that Washington’s top rate would be one of the highest in the nation is a lie of omission if I ever saw one… you know, kinda like when the Times argued that even high-tax/socialist Sweden eliminated its estate tax, while failing to inform readers that they replaced it with a 1.5% annual wealth tax.
Yeah, and I’m the partisan spinmeister.
When marijuana is legal all these lesser issues will go away!
Just imagine how much the State will save on mental health bills!
Corner shops will sell reefers instead of Thunderbird! Less work for the cops and marijuana does not make street people puke!
AND, legalizing marijuana is now THIRD in the governor’s poll of ways to fix our budget issues! The only more popular ideas are to use prisoners for forced labor and to withhold all state funded services from unregistered immigrants!
Since the two most popular suggestions are conservative, this means even the right understands “Just Say Now!”
Lee
Lego my Ego
goldy is being dishonest again by not factoring in the taxes that WA does have compared to the taxes that OR and CA DONT have. whats the sales tax rate in Oregon goldy? How often do property taxes go up on california goldy? and thats just the tip of the iceberg.
once again, its actually GOLDY that is guilty of “lie of omission”
once again its goldy who is guilty of trying to build an argument by leaving out the “inconvenient truths”
nice try goldy, but you FAYLE..
goldy owned.
@1
LMFAO @ believe that not only is pot TEH WUNDERDRUGG, but that it will solve the state’s, and presumabley the nation’s, budget woes.
hahaahhahahha
dont mind if pot is legal, but to believe that is is hte magic bullet solution to every problem is just…well…..comical.
are you high?
@2
CA has a high Sales Tax as well as an Income Tax.
Learn to read.
@4
I never said CA did not have a sales tax. I said Oregon didnt.
learn to read yourself, motherfucker…
The Seattle Times is privately owned, so it doesn’t have to publish the salaries of the Blethen family members who work there, or receive income for having once worked there, or who receive income from the Times because, well, they are Blethens and the payroll department was told to issue them a regular check, and not to ask too many questions about exactly what they did to earn it. And lets not forget the investment income derived from money accumulated over three or four generations of Blethens pulling money from the Time’s various interests.
So perhaps they DO make so much money that the first $200,000 per year of exemption is, well, inconsequential to them, in comparison with their other income upon which they will have to pay the tax?
@2
According to the Tax Foundation CA and WA had the same property tax collections per capita in 2007.
Of course if you buy a house in CA, you’ll pay more than you would here. Newer home owners end up paying more, those who haven’t moved for awhile are given a break by Prop 13. This is true for business owned property too.
@4
…being dishonest again by not factoring in the taxes that WA does have compared to the taxes that OR and CA DONT have…
Well, what taxes don’t CA have???
Asswipe.
“By comparison, under I-1098, a Washington household earning $400,000 would pay… well… zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis. Absolutely nothing. And according to a new OFM report, the same would be true for 98.8% of Washington households.”
For two years……..
Then it’s on big time….
@9
uh oh, you mean another lie of omission by goldy?
wow, why am a so surprised??? not.
@8
do some research and see how CA does their property taxes numbnuts
you have been owned twice in one thread..wanna try for a hat trick?
Uptown @ 7: Yep, Prop. 13 distored the real estate market in California, which affected the national market indirectly. People who have owned their homes for a long time owe very little in real estate taxes, by freezing their appraised value for tax purposes, so they are disenclined to sell.
This restricts the total number of transferable properties to an artificially low level, driving up prices and encouraging new construction to a point not economically justified by the population as a whole. Prices being driven up in the mid-2000’s in California had a related affect on other markets, including Arizona and Nevada, especially. While this wasn’t the sole cause of the housing bubble, it sure didn’t help any.
So the new entrants to the real estate market – mostly young people, were paying twice – both in an artificially higher price for the real estate, and again on the tax rates as a whole.
I don’t think California is ever going to be able to get out of it’s current budget problems without repealing Prop. 13, repealing other anti-tax measures requiring a super-majority, or reforming it’s tax structure completely.
But at this point simply repealing Prop. 13 is probably politically untenable. There would simply be too many stories of retired couples seeing their tax bills jump up to levels they can’t afford. Trying to explain that they were simply having to pay what they should have been paying all along won’t wash. So at best, they would have to phase the repeal of Prop. 13 in very gradually. But as we have seen in New York City’s attempt to wean itself of rent-controlled apartments, such a process takes a very long time, and people will go to extraordinary attempts to try to conceal transfers in ownership to keep the favored status. It may take twenty or thirty years to do so.
The stupidity of all this is the right wing idea that taxes are steeling money.
Everyone of us, esp. the wealthiest, gets a vast array of services .. starting in all of our cases from our living on land stolen by this country for our predecessors. If the right rich want to prove they can make it on their own I suspect they can hire Blackwater, go conquer some poor place (maybe Greece?) and set up shop their way.
Until then they are living on My land, stolen fair and square from the Duwamish people!
Of course our societal expenditures did not stop there! “We” are fighting a war now to protect “our” interests. In fact between 1/3 and 1/2 of every tax dollar goes to that service “We” provide. If the rich don’t like this, why don’t they hire an army of mercenaries … I’ll betcha there are some well trained folks in Russia who Blackwater could hire for a few 100 billion. Then, the right rich can own Afghanistan and move there!
Of course they then get free opium!
Boy. These wingers really get flamed on the subject of taxing rich people.
Why don’t you guys buy Amway dealerships and make something of yourselves?
@11
I’ve owned property in CA and paid their taxes; you’re an idiot.
– – – – –
According to the conservative run Tax Foundation, State & Local Tax Burden (2008) was:
CA – 10.5%
OR – 9.4% (before their latest income tax hike)
WA – 8.9%
WA came in 35 out of 50 (50 being the state with the lowest burden)
Oh yeah, did I mention that in 1994, the State & Local Tax Burden for WA was…10.4%, and we were ranked 17th.
– – –
Goldy,
Is the EDIT feature not working or is it my browser?
@16, Edit works for me. I’m using Firefox 3.6.8 on Windows XP.
“Riddle of Steel” is going for the Golden Goat. Why he’s dumber than the Troll and looser with the facts than ButtPutty.
“Riddle of Steel”, hah. More like “Puddle of Pee”.
Edit?
No edit on Safari coming in from both haseattle.com and horsesass.org
Great post!
@13
“Until then they are living on My land, stolen fair and square from the Duwamish people”
And where exactly was the border of “your land”?
Ocean to Ocean? Sea to shining Sea? or maybe simply as far as your eye can see?
This argument is barely worth the response.
Sorry if Right Stuff lacks the stuff to understand irony.
The point is that ALL of live here in a shared property we ALL own. You are NOT the sole owner of your lot, your ownership only has meaning because the US of A exists. Paying taxes to the Us of A is as normal as doing your chores when you lived in Momma and Daddy’s house. Think of this as “rent.”
Being an American means you share in both the wealth of this place and its obligations. If you don’t want to pat this rent, go conquer your own country! Hell lotsa right wingers think Castro is ready to fall. So why not go hire an army, invade, win and declare yourself the Ayn Rand Republic formerly known as Cuba?
BTW, that is EXACTLY what Sam Houston and friends did to Mexico. .. oops Texas.
@18
ekum,
Perhaps you can tell me where I am wrong? I bet you cant.
Fact: Goldy was trying to make a comparison between WA, OR and CA taxing
Fact: he chided ST for “lie of omission”
Fact: Goldy did the same “lie of omission” in his little comparison between the states, failing to mention little items the fact that OR has no sales tax
show me where I am wrong..or are you gonna pull a YLB and type in something irrelevant because you have no real response?
ya, thats what I thought..
To the piddle of pot iron:
You are yet another typical troll, making up shit and calling other people liars. To wit:
I never said CA did not have a sales tax. I said Oregon didnt.
whats the sales tax rate in Oregon goldy?
See, you actually never said Oregon did not have sales tax, you asked the sales tax rate. This is trifling point, but consistent with most of your bullshit on this site. Conflating income tax with sales tax (you endless “lie of omission”), which you do over and over again, seems par for the course with your rhetoric.