This week the panel was briefly joined by Democratic Candidate for Washington State Attorney General and current Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg, who discusses Sound Transit’s next moves and that Washington State is second worst in the nation for consumer fraud. Next Goldy seeks free legal advice from John on whether current Attorney General Rob McKenna has thrown our primary election into chaos through incompetence.
The discussion then gets all touchy-feely over the Doug Sutherland sexual harassment scandal and contemplates Peter Goldmark as Sutherland’s replacement. The local political races add a wonky finish to the podcast.
Goldy was joined by Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly, John Ladenburg, The Stranger’s Erica C. Barnett, HorsesAss blogger Will, and Eat the State, KEXP and occasional HorsesAss contributor Geov Parrish.
The show is 50:12, and is available here as an MP3:
[Audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_july_15_2008.mp3]
[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to creators Gavin and Richard for hosting the site.]
Ok I live in the 46th and attended the LD caucus. Scott White spoke said we needed an income tax in this state but he didn’t build up to it. He didn’t even try to sell it convincingly. He just sighed at the funding chaos in Olympia and just assumed everyone would agree with him. The crowd was sympathetic but a bit disappointed. I mean this was a guy who’s been involved forever in the 46th and seemed groomed to take the next big step.
The other guy Pollet gave a pretty good fiery speech and kind of surprised me. He got a decent amount of applause and seem to connect with the rank and file better. No mention of taxation though.
I mean I’ve been absolutely appalled forever at the regressive nature of the taxing in this state and White, someone who on the surface would be my guy didn’t seem up to it.
I think a lot of Democrats consider the tax structure in this state to be the “third rail” of local politics. Hell, Eyman’s made a career out of appealing to the wingnuts on the theory that there’s no such thing as a good tax, and I’m sure they feel that a progressive tax is even worse.
Pushing hard for reform will bring out a lot of the big guns from the opposition, along with big money donations trying to bury the candidate. Candidates for local races which don’t usually get a lot of attention or money could find themselves buried in an avalanche of negative advertising, without the media taking any steps to get their side of the story out. What motive would Belthan have to make sure that a more progressive tax structure gets a fair debate?
I’m all in favor of a revenue-neutral Washington State Income Tax (personal and corporate), along with abolishment of the state B&O and sales tax. But it’s going to be a long, hard road for us to ever bring this to fruitation. I doubt our state legislature would be up to the task on their own, it would probably have to be done by initiative. (Even if the legislature enacted it, there would be immediate initiative drives to cancel it).
2 – Yes, it’s pretty bad but I don’t think it’s quite as bad as you’re painting. Bill Gates, Sr., a lifelong Republican has supported reform forever and the changing makeup of this State kind of argues for a head of steam behind reform. On the other had, the current tax laws acts as a magnet for wingnuts and no matter how things change, they kind of tend to stay the same.
I was hopeful for reform if Gregoire is re-elected. I kept thinking that she and any Democrat in the Governor’s seat is just waiting for right timing but with people like Frank Chopp in the legislature I now have my doubts.
I keep thinking this State could be so much more if it had a broader, fairer tax base. Per pupil school spending in this state is near bottom and a disgrace. Our infrastructure is good to fair in some spots but generally poor overall.
And gee, every income tax proposal comes with the carrot of generally lower taxes for the middle and working classes in this State. What’s not to love about fairness?
The current system is just not sustainable. The wingnut dream seems to be a backwater state with agreeable weather and the Dems seem only too timid to propose better things.
While there may be reasons for a progressive income tax, it is not because it is fair. Fair literally means equal for everyone. A sales tax is equal to everyone. A progressive income tax is, by definition, not. You probably mean just (e.g. “It is only just that the rich should pay more”). However, as someone who likes to keep control over the fruits of his efforts, regardless of the many income brackets I’ve inhabited, I find it incredibly unjust to steal from the rich to give to the poor. Sounds only a few steps from “from each according to his ability, to each according to his need”.
4 – Nope. As long as we tax income, we should go where the income is. Consider capital gains. 59 percent of all capital gains is collected by households with over a million dollars in income. That’s a mindblowing statistic.
Some household’s income is completely off the charts. It’s totally stupid to tax people like that at the same rate you’d tax a worker bee making 30 odd grand a year. And yes, it’s terribly unfair.
If you want lower tax rates for everybody then cut spending. The Defense Department is loaded with waste. A good first start would be to require the Defense Department to submit to and pass a GAO audit.