We keep hearing from pundits and politicians that, what with the passage of I-1053 and I-1107, and the failure of I-1098, new revenue sources are off the table as legislators seek to close a $5.7 billion gap in the next biennial budget, and a $1.1 billion additional shortfall just between now and June, but of course, that’s a load of bullshit. It is possible for legislators to raise new revenue this session, and it would be both cowardly and irresponsible of them not to consider this option.
Yeah, I know, I-1053 requires a two-thirds supermajority in both houses to raise any tax or eliminate any of our billions of dollars in tax preferences exemptions breaks loopholes. But a two-thirds majority would be a slam dunk with Republican support, a not unreasonable if unlikely scenario, in order to, say, raise the money to restore school levy equalization funds.
Alternatively, if both houses were to pass a revenue measure by a simple majority, and Gov. Gregoire were to have the balls to sign it into law, we could finally have that legal showdown over the highly questionable constitutionality of the two-thirds supermajority requirement… a showdown most of the constitutional attorneys I’ve talked to think Tim Eyman’s and his measure would likely lose.
Finally, legislators could always put a revenue package on the ballot, and ask voters to voice yay or nay on, say, a two-cent per can tax on soda pop in order to raise the money to restore school levy equalization funds. I-1107 failed in King County; give much of the rest of the state a good reason to support such a tax, and perhaps the beverage industry won’t be quite so successful snowing voters next time around. (And it sure would be fun to force Coke and Pepsi to spend yet another $16 million. In fact, we could make an annual game of it, padding the earnings of local radio a TV stations in the process.)
New revenue is an option. It simply is. Not an easy option, but an option nonetheless. So don’t you let a cowardly pundit or politician tell you otherwise.
pundits? the 3 reps from 46th district said as much yesterday at an open forum at a community college in the district. Scott White, Phyllis Kenny, Dave Froct. (I may have misspelled their names).
Goldy, you should read this:
http://www.thenewstribune.com/.....etter.html
As far as I’m concerned taking new revenue off the table means that you’d rather watch the state crash and burn than make a tough or unpopular choice. We need both cutbacks and more money coming into the system to make this work.
From the piece I linked to above:
We’re not over taxed at the state level and we don’t need to worry (much) about becoming over taxed.
New revenue IS off the table, because Democrats have no balls.
Yup!
Can’t raise taxes on the job creators!! Wouldn’t be prudent. Not at this critical juncture.
Maybe if we are lucky they might hire an illegal to polish their Maserati.
re 3: ‘AtomicSteve’ would be even more effective — and slightly retro.
You can use it for free — after all, I stole it from my bro in law.
I don’t know about that Goldy.
I have found that I have personally been able to save a lot of money by cutting out things.
For example, even if you do it yourself and don’t pay for one of those goldplated 15 minute jobs (probably the shops are all filled with union freeloaders) and change your oil yourself, I’ve found not changing or even adding oil saves significant money.
Also, many people waste money on food and groceries. (You know those super markets are filled with union freeloaders.) I’ve found that most of these places don’t really seem to care if you just take food out of the store without paying if you just take small amounts and hide it in bulky pants or coats. Gigantic money savings opportunities exist with places who let you just take stuff.
I could go on, but I think you get my point. Before we raise revenue we really ought to look into other options.
Oh, how about we pull all the teeth from the dead people in WA cemeteries and put them under residents’ pillows? You do know that the Tooth Fairy is related to the Invisible Hand Fairy – which brought us the balanced budgets under Raygun and GWB.
I have a great way to help balance the state budget — ELIMINATE MEDICAID PRESCRIPTION DRUG COVERAGE FOR ADULTS! It’s optional for states to cover this (even though the federal government picks up at least 50% of the cost). But NO STATE HAS EVER TRIED THIS since the Medicaid program was adopted in 1965.
Just think of the possible savings. There are a lot of bipolar and schizo folks who are disabled and on SSI (and therefore Medicaid) because they can’t get it together enough to work. But give them $50 to $300 per month in psych meds, and they can at least stay out of jail or the mental ward. Stop covering these drugs on Medicaid, and the State of Washington saves its 50% share of the cost — or $25 to $150 per month.
There are certainly risks — these folks could end up in jail (at least $50 per day) or a psych ward (at least $300 per day), if they can’t get these meds on an outpatient basis. BUT THIS IS AN EXCELLENT “REPUBLICAN” KIND OF WAY TO SAVE MONEY!
Whoops I forgot — GOVERNOR GREGOIRE HAS ALREADY ORDERED THIS TO HAPPEN! How clever!
@ 8
Uh, there are no psych wards anymore. Reagan defunded them back in 83.
They were replaced with conservative think tanks, and they pay quite well, if you know the right politician.
@8
It’s a good example of someone high up the food chain not knowing how things work at the bottom of the food chain. This will wont happen because it can’t work.
It’s also a good example of false economy as if they really did do it, it would cost the state more cash in the long run.
I believe that the past go around with the 2/3 majority to implement any new taxes and any new fees was presumed to be out of line with the state constitution, but the legislature abided by it because it was the will of voters. I agree that if it were challenged that it would be proven to be unenforceable. However as others have stated there are no balls amongst the membership. It won’t even occur to them to consider. Instead we will continue to see less and less money for colleges, universities, k-12 and all the various state services that people forget that they use.
So many people assume that there is just a ton of fat in the state government that can be reduced and solve our deficit. While it certainly has to be true that there are positions and services that are nice to have but not necessary, the amount that could be saved would be insignificant in comparison to the problem, but the effect of eliminating these things would be devastating to the ones who would experience it. The latest thing of course, is a 2.5% across the board pay cut proposed by Republicans to save Basic Health. Just wait until the exemptions to that come into play. The furloughs are a burden born by 25% of the state workforce even though originally it was proposed that all state employees would share that sacrifice. So I bet that some people will end up with a far greater cut in pay and it won’t be the fat cats. It will be the worker bees. For those already dealing with furloughs (I am not one since I work in higher ed) that will be a total of 7.5% pay reduction. The furlough itself is a 5% pay cut and the additional 2.5% will reduce it further.
Gregoire’s manner during these several years of financial crisis, and that of the legislature really piss me off. I understand that the collections by the state are a moving target, but rather than spending months and months doing everything but the budget, the state legislature punted, making the problem more difficult. And they took it out of the hide of higher ed while leaving large pieces of general government untouched, unexamined, and not fettered with any sort of close scrutiny or examinations for ways of doing business with less.
I’ve spent the last several years certain I’m going to lose my job within the next 6 months. And in fact the funding for my particular work has been slashed by 50% and so we must raise grant funds to cover the other 50%. IF we don’t raise those funds AND we still exist after July 1, I get to work 1/2 time which is less money than available on unemployment (whose time is slashed because of the fucking republicans in Congress). And it seems even hanging on to that 50% will be a challenge. Of course, that impacts our capacity to raise private money since no one wants to give to an organization that has squishy institutional support.
I’m guessing my scenario isn’t unique and that these worries affect many state employees who are also weary and suspicious of our governor and legislature. Never before has there been a time that called for good leadership and we are sorely lacking at every level. I read the proposals by Alexander and Zarelli (State repubs) and while I don’t agree with much of it, I do admire their capacity to get to it and propose something. They did so before the House dems. And Lisa Brown is still completely and utterly silent in the Senate.
Well, it’s certainly the time to ask all those who supported I-1098 to send the Department of Revenue a check. After all, I beleive Bill Gates’ dad spent $500K of his own money on I-1098. Maybe he would have done more “good” by just cutting a check to the DOR for $500,000.
Yeah, let’s bring back the soda and snack tax, because what Washington really needs is even more taxes that disproportionately impact the poor.
Over the past decade we’ve fallen from the #1 most regressively taxed state to #8… quite a disturbing trend. We must do something about it ASAP!
e 12: Right. And if you believe in funding law enforcement, every time you speed, you should send in payment for the ticket — even if you didn’t get caught.
@5 “Can’t raise taxes on the job creators!! Wouldn’t be prudent. Not at this critical juncture.”
We’ve been slashing taxes for years. So where are the fucking jobs?
16: Since Bud was quoting an old SNL skit involving George Bush Sr., I don’t think he was being serious.
@ 13
Yeah, lets tax candy and soda pop. lets tax the shit out of them.
Those are LUXURY goods, not basic groceries. Anyone who buys candy and soda pop instead of bread, meat, cheese vegetables, milk or fruit juice for their kids is throwing money down the toilet, and is not providing adequate nutrition for their kids. They are neglecting their childrens health by purchasing such items.
Luxury goods should be taxed. Soda pop is NOT food. Candy is NOT food. Fast cheeseburgers are NOT food. Those are luxury items. You can avoid paying such taxes if you don’t buy those luxury products.
I agree with Deathfrogg, taxing candy and soda pop seems like a good idea in theory, but that convoluted scheme the legislators came up with didn’t work for anyone.
But it’s just a small fraction of what the state needs, it’s a rather trivial revenue stream.
@15. Somalia has no taxes. Look at the capitalist paradise it is.
@17, 18
I liked Goldy’s idea that we should reimpose the tax and let Pepsi and Coke spend another $16 million subsidizing the local media.
Let’s start with government cheese reform. You know, kicking the abusers and parasites off of it that aren’t really disabled, etc., but simply don’t want to work and find a way to cheat the system and make a lifestyle of it. Way too easy to do here in Libtarded Washington. Unacceptable. Time for reform!
Repeal GMA
Re-open Union Contracts and have guv’mint workers pay 50% of Health Care.
Eliminate 1/2 of the paid days off…they get about 46. That should allow lay-offs.
Cut wages 10%
Change Pension Plans from current defined benefit.
Eliminate the Dept of Ecology…there is $200 MILLION+ of bureaucracy designed to hamstring businesses to justify themselves.
Eliminate Superintendent of Public Instruction Office.
The Evergreen Freedom Foundation just sent an open letter to Gregoire with lots of suggestions..
http://www.effwa.org/main/arti.....le_id=3265
READ IT!
I guess it’s easier to just cover your eyes and put your fingers in your ears and scream that Conservatives have no ideas!!
Here you go.
Let’s discuss them.
Oh yeah, you don’t want to.
You want to pretend they do not exist.
What is the role of Government?
How do you provide REQUIRED services most cost effectively?
Open things up. Right to Work State!
Mr Cynical @ 22
Interesting list. A good start on completely dismantling civil society.
Which reminds me, you’ve never explained yourself:
In your libertarian utopia, who pays for the administration of our courts and elections?
Richard Pope @ 8
I know you’re being funny. That said:
Taking care of the weak, sick, and needy is exactly why I cheerfully pay my taxes.
1% of all humans have schizophrenia. How are they supposed to take care of themselves? Loud mouths like “lost” will say they deserved their fate.
I disagree.
I’m not a Christian, but I still believe that we’ll be judged by how we treat the least among us.
I’d happy trade one of our 11 naval carrier groups in exchange for taking care of our own people.
Or 10% of our nukes. Or pull out of Iraq. Or end corporate welfare. Or..
Mark1 @ 22
Trillions wasted on unnecessary wars. Billions wasted subsidizing the over production of food.
And you finger poor people getting some of the cheese rotting in government warehouses as the big problem to tackle. Cheese that wouldn’t exist without diary subsidies.
That’s a stunning intellectual contribution. You truly are an oracle for these challenging times.
Please.
Continue.
incorrect @ 12
Whereas all the monies supporting trog positions were entirely worthwhile investments?
False equivalence FTW!
Cyn, please explain why states like Alabama and Louisiana that are right to work states and low regulations are not thriving power houses of capitalism?
They are doing just what you want, yet are not successful. Why is that? I think it’s cause you are wrong.
@17: Fruit juice is a “luxury good” too. Nutritionally it’s no better than soda with some vitamin C mixed in (and some fiber, if you drink the pulp). Seriously, look it up: orange juice has nearly as much sugar as Mountain Dew. So, shall we tax fruit juice too?
Some would say meat is a luxury product as well. You can get the same nutrition from soybeans or whatever, without the fat and with a much smaller environmental impact. Feeding your kids red meat is arguably starting them down an early road to heart disease. So, shall we tax meat too?
In fact, let’s just add a surtax on every food except tasteless, nutritionally balanced gruel. It’s OK as long as you can still avoid the taxes by sticking to gruel, right?
Thanks MISTER Cynical-ASS-Klown for more banana-republican bullshit.
PS-The Spady family that owns the Dick’s Drive In chain is a major supporter of the right-wing-whack-job Evergreen Freedom (from regulation of business and the environment) Foundation and charter (=bust up public education) schools.
Jesse @ 28
Agreed.
Assuming you’re referring to real juice, vs high fructose corn syrup (which is completely bad).
To clarify, the problem isn’t the fruit sugar, per se. Rather, it’s the lack of natural fiber.
Sucrose breaks down to equal parts fructose and glucose. Glucose good. Fructose bad. The fiber in fruit blocks the metabolization of the fructose.
TL;DR – Fruit juice bad. Fresh fruit good. Because of the fiber.
“Yeah, let’s bring back the soda and snack tax, because what Washington really needs is even more taxes that disproportionately impact the poor.”
I could give a flyin’ fuck whether or not you think a sales tax is “regressive.” Better to have a “regressive” tax than a “progressive” tax any day of the week! Fuck income taxes! We should be working on eliminating that tax at all levels – federal, state & local!!
incorrect @ 31
Intriguing. Please give an example of a society that does levy taxes. Past or present.
Jason Osgood @ 4
I AM NOT JOKING. Governor Gregoire has ALREADY APPROVED these cuts. The link is a detailed list of the health care cuts, exactly what is being cut, and the effective dates of each cut.
Most of the cuts come from Medicaid programs. Which means that between 50% and 90% of the program is funded by FEDERAL MONEY. So the State of Washington savings on many of these items is very small, and will result in hundreds of millions of FEDERAL DOLLARS no longer being spent in Washington.
GOVERNOR GREGOIRE ALSO WANTS TO ELIMINATE BIRTH CONTROL COVERAGE FOR LOWER INCOME ADULTS.
Under current programs, anyone earning less than 200% of federal poverty level — both WOMEN and MEN — get their birth control and family planning paid for by DSHS. Also, a woman whose pregnancy was covered by DSHS gets birth control and family planning covered by DSHS for a year after the pregnancy is cover, even if her income rises over 200% of federal poverty level. THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT EVEN PAYS 90% OF THIS PROGRAM, AND THE STATE ONLY COVERS 10%.
Effective March 1, 2011, Gregoire is ELIMINATING these programs entirely, so the State of Washington can save its 10% matching share.
Gregoire’s policies certainly are ANTI-CHOICE, since they deny both WOMEN and MEN numerous options for birth control and family planning.
But at least Gregoire is not ANTI-ABORTION. If a woman gets pregnant because DSHS would not pay for birth control or family planning, she can still qualify for Pregnancy Medical, if her income is below 185% of federal poverty level (based on a family size that includes the unborn child or unborn children). And in that situation, DSHS will still PAY FOR AN ABORTION. Which by the way, comes 100% from State of Washington funds, since the federal government does not provide any funding whatsoever for elective abortions.
incorrect @ 31
Intriguing. Please give an example of a society that DOES NOT levy taxes. Past or present.
{updated, my bad}
Richard @ 33
My bad. Here’s my fix:
the problem is us. not the politicians.
take us liberals.
we keep electing them. but they will NOT challenge this unconstitutional 2/3 provision in court.
“they don’t have any balls” — means we don’t cuz we keep reelecting them.
Let’s start the socialist party. We can start by saying no more torture mongering, Obama — you didn’t prosecute Bushies so out you go. No. two, no more dumb wars like Afgh. No. 3, it’s class warfare time, we’re going to NOT extend Bush tax cuts for the top 2% and then we’re going to ADD another tax on the top 1% to fully fund unemployment benefits for another year and we’re going to take all the money from GM and the banks that they paid back and create some fucking WPA jobs with it — we’re going to create 4 or 8 million jobs now.
But no. Instead, we will watch the dems in olympia do the cuts, we will watch them not raise revenue, we will watch them cave in.
Then we will all just reelect them.
@31: Whether a tax is “regressive” or “progressive” is not a matter of opinion. Regressive means that people with lower incomes end up paying a higher percentage of their income on that tax; progressive means the opposite.
The federal income tax is progressive because the brackets go up as income level goes up. Sales taxes are regressive because people with lower incomes generally spend a higher percentage of their income on taxable items. Again, those are facts, not opinions.
Whether a regressive tax is good or bad is a matter of opinion. I think it’s bad for poor people to be hit harder by taxes than rich people. You seem to think it’s good, but I predict you’ll have a hard time convincing anyone else of that.
Cutting social services and freezing the pay of government workers won’t solve the budget problem. It may make puritanical shitheels feel better, though. They get to punish someone and pretend that they are able human beings making the hard decisions.
The real solution is to tax the rich more and to get rid of the 4 billion dollar a year tax breaks that Boeing gets.
Those are the really hard decisions that must be made — standing up to the rich and powerful and make them pull their weight in this society.
Going after government workers and people who need social services is the solution for weak, ignorant conservatives.
So KKKynical wants to negotiate. OK:
Extend the GMA
Legalize secondary boycotts and union shops.
Single payer health care.
Mandatory paid vacation of 6 weeks–like many European countries.
Increase wages 40%
Pension reform mandating punishing vulture capitalists for robbing pension plans to fund their acquisition and/or takeover schemes.
Eliminate most scammy business deductions.
Increase regulation of scoufflaw corporations and businesses.
OK…I’m ready to negotiate.
You people musta really missed what the voters in Washington said in November:
NO NEW TAXES – Cut Government
it’s hard to get locals to be for new revenue when our democratic leader obama is a total cave in wussy wuss with the GOP.
Krugman today says hold the line, say okay, we won’t extend tax cuts for anyone if we don’t get what we want.
That’s called having a spine. It’s basic politics: you don’t give in to hostage taking. Because they just keep doing it.
Think of that as a great deal. for only a modest tax increase of a few hundred dollars a year for the average family, we get a wopping big tax increase of $100,000 or more from millionaires. And to do it we don’t need to do anything; we don’t need to break a filibuster or maneuver anything through congress.
Then once the tax hikes are in place, if you want to lower taxes for the bottom 2-4 quintiles, do that. Bush did tax stuff with reconciliation. shouldn’t be too hard to get the conservative democrats on board with middle class tax cuts a few months later or even peel off some GOP members. And if you don’t get 51 senators, fuck ’em, raise taxes for everyone.
The great ideas on blogs like this one for more revenue or other sensible actions are all doomed to failure due to the lack of leadership and the cave in response at the top of the party.
Its not the Damn Governments money, it’s the breadwinner’s damn money. If Obama and the idiot Democrats would stop their wild ass spending spree, this country could get back on track. We are in a damn depression, with unemployment and underemployment at record levels, while government workers are milking the cow dry!
@Id: I hate to burst your bubble, but spending is what makes the economy go. In fact, that’s all the economy is: spending. When private sector spending slows down, either government picks up the slack or the economy grinds to a halt.