Congratulations Frank Blethen… you just won yourself a tax break!
Yesterday the state Senate joined the House in overwhelmingly approving HB 2585 (only Sen. Rodney Tom voted nay), a bill that redefines for B&O tax purposes the term “newspaper” to include its online editions. The result is that revenue from online advertising will now be taxed at the special discounted newspaper rate of 0.484 percent, instead of the standard 1.5 percent rate currently charged. Although this tax cut will cost the state $3 million in the next biennial budget, I’m guessing Gov. Gregoire will quietly sign it into law, rather risk the ire of the state’s editorial boards during an election year.
Kudos to Postman for risking his annual bonus by posting on this issue the other day, and extra special kudos to him for pointing out his bosses’ hypocrisy:
Allied Daily Newspapers, the newspaper lobbying group, has been making the case for the tax cut. Meanwhile, newspaper editorial boards have been urging lawmakers to save money this year to prepare for lean budget times ahead.
The Times said the state could set aside $1 billion-plus and that lawmakers should cut spending until they have reached that goal.” And the P-I, which is in a joint operating agreement with The Times, has said lawmakers have to prepare for hard choices, “even if that means holding back on some of the new spending being discussed …”
Our state’s newspaper industry already costs Washington state and local governments $40 million per biennium with their sales tax exemption for newspapers, so what’s another $3 million, huh? Meanwhile, we can make up the lost revenue by cutting health care for children, or the fat paychecks of our state’s teachers. It’s all about priorities.
But there’s one more nefarious aspect of this bill that Postman and other Olympia observers have missed (or didn’t seem to think it worthy enough to comment on.) Take a look at the language of the bill, and how it defines a newspaper:
What that means is the Times gets the discounted 0.484 percent rate on ads served on Postman’s blog, while dirty fucking hippies like me have to pay more than three times that!
Now, I don’t generate nearly enough ad revenue from HA to pay a B&O tax, but I hope to someday, and this 20th century definition of “newspaper” secured by industry lobbyists is intentionally anticompetitive. Crosscut bills itself as an “online newspaper,” and has gobs of venture money behind it, but because it doesn’t actually print on “newsprint in tabloid or broadsheet format folded loosely together without stapling, glue, or any other binding of any kind,” its owners must pay more than three times the tax rate as Blethen and his buddies. (That is, assuming Crosscut has any ad revenues. Or, um… readers.) Where is the sense in that?
Newspaper readership is relentlessly moving online, and there’s nothing the industry can do to stop it; it’s simply a more efficient and flexible way to deliver and consume content. But this shift in media consumption patterns also tears down longstanding barriers to market entry, creating the opportunity for bloggers like me to nibble away at the dailies’ audience and influence, and the potential for new online news ventures to seriously vie for ad dollars with relatively little upfront investment. And so the newspaper industry has convinced the legislature to discourage and disadvantage new competition by charging them more than three times their tax rate.
I am as good a writer as anybody at the Times or the P-I; it is the quality of my writing that has always been the key to HA’s success. That the Legislature should choose to penalize me and other entrepreneurs for publishing online rather than on dead trees is incomprehensible, especially in a state that has led the nation and the world in commercializing the Internet. It is offensive. It is insulting. And it will not stand.
Well, well so sad.
‘I am as good a writer as anybody at the Times or the P-I’
And sorry Goldy, you are not. Constant foul-mouthed use of excessive profanity puts you at a level way below. Clean it up if you still fancy yourself a real “reporter” and a “professional”.
Goldy, you could always “issue” a version of HorsesAss.org twice a month that “looks” like whatever this definition is describing. Just print out two pages, fold them and you’re done.
It doesn’t state you need to sell any.
Yep, just put ’em out at your local coffee shop. “The (bi)Weekly Goldbrick” or something.
I generally dislike it when businesses uses government to secure competative advantages, or a benefit not available to their competition (actual or potential).
But I should point out that all bloggers benefit from the reporting done by newspapers. We don’t have the resources to do significant investigations, except on the occassional basis when we get a hot tip. We have pointed out previously on this forum that consolidation of newspapers and broadcast media (TV & radio, and even Cable) is bad, because it diminishes the number of outlets that are competing for our attention by providing a broad range of investigative journalism and on-the-spot news reporting. From that standpoint, would a bit of a tax subsidy in their direction be such a bad thing?
But I do wonder how this will play out in the future a few years from now, when the current settlment between the Seattle Times and the P.I. expires. Will one try to hang on as a print newspaper just to preserve the favorable B&O tax rate, while the other is saving money by abandoning the dead-tree concept of publishing and offering online-only editions, instead?
Of course, the whole thing demonstrates, once again, how the B&O tax system favors the established big businesses, and hurts the small start-ups. We could solve the problem by some meaningful tax reform which trashes the B&O tax and it’s politically-motivated rate structure, and replaces it instead with a (“gasp!”) state income tax.
If they want to quibble about “newsprint” just use the crappiest paper you can print on and claim you have higher standards.
rhp6033 – “Reporting” works both ways. The traditional media report on the work of other reporters all the time. Many of us bloggers do reporting that the traditional media don’t do, that they sometimes pick up on.
Goldy–
I’m with you on this one…minus the profanity and the fact that I’m not a “Dirty F—ing Hippy” like you are.
The newspaper industry is coming up for it’s 3rd and final gasp of air. Both party’s should be ashamed for not standing up to them. They voted for this tax giveaway out of fear. I applaud Rodney Tom for not caving in.
The State of Washington is facing a Budget trainwreck, by their own admission, during the next Budget cycle. State Revenue forecasts declined $432 MILLION last adjustment. I would expect further declines in the future. This sets the tone of our State leadership. Just keep giving away and spending. When the poop hits the fan, we will all wonder why…..and look for ways to increase taxes on rich folks.
Gregoire is no leader. The buck stops with her.
DK @ 6: Yes, that’s true – Goldy’s publication of Brownie’s stint with the arabian horses association being a pretty good exampel.
It’s also true that the number of real journalism or investigative reporting by newspapers is fairly rare right now , considering the number of papers nationally. I get some press releases in my e-mail on a regular basis, and it was dissapointing, at first, to find that most of the daily newspapers would pick up the press release and re-print it, virtually word-for-word (editing only to reduce the length of the story). I also check the online version of several newspapers every day, including the Seattle Times, the P.I., the Los Angeles Times, and my old hometown papers (one still in print, the other in online edition only), as well as the national media sites such as MSNBC, etc. I find that regardless of where in the nation the paper is printed, about 80% of the news content is straight from the AP wires service, with perhaps 18% of the remainder being purely local stories. This seems to be getting worse, rather than better.
So maybe we should make the tax benefits dependent upon the newspaper generating original content? Yea, I know, unenforceable, first amendment problems, etc.
“I am as good a writer as anybody at the Times or the P-I; it is the quality of my writing that has always been the key to HA’s success.”
Since when have mostly self-serving rants and profanity laden hysterical denunciations qualified as “good writing?”
C’mon, let’s face it, you’re jealous! Now you’re on the side of “I’m overtaxed!” which makes you one step closer to your own David Mamet-moment (I’ve just coined a descriptive phrase for when a liberal gets one of those mugged-by-reality experiences); Goldy is on the cusp of becoming an anti-tax crusader!
Why didn’t all your buds in Oly clue you in on this? And why didn’t they stand up for you by including bloggers in the definition of newspaper? Could it be that you don’t have all that much influence? Or that maybe the sewar of the comment threads barely rises above anonymous hate mail status, and for this you want a tax break?
Say it ain’t so, Goldy!
Instead of shaking your fist at how unjustly you’re being treated and how you’re not getting your due (here’s a clue: the successful political player never lauds himself; give the credit to the folks because it’s for them you carry on the fight – don’t be so self-serving), try working the system. In other words, get the bill amended to include blogs.
Good Republican that you are becoming (“I don’t generate nearly enough ad revenue from HA to pay a B&O tax, but I hope to someday” – A very Republican statment) instead of slaming the unfairness of The Times getting a break, you should applaud it while arguing that justice demands equal treatment for online periodicals of all kinds.
What’s good for the goose…
But instead you insult the very people you need to make it go you way. Who does your PR? Charles Manson?
Tone – it’s all about tone.
The Piper
You deservedly got what you asked for
Piper Scott – Newspapers aren’t a barometer of “good writing”. Never have been. They write at a grade school level for the most part.
@10 – Oh please. Give it up – we’re dealing with the ongoing decline of the economy due to Bush policies. When you don’t have a veto proof majority the executive branch has the upper hand.
But this is off topic for this thread.
If it’s good for Times, it’s good for everyone else who pays 1.5%. Where’s everyone else’s B&O service category tax cut? Gregoire???
@11…Danial K….
Would that HA in its dreams could strive to attain a grade-school level.
Good writing entails subtlty, wit, insight, and respect for the intelligence of the reader. It doesn’t engage in personal pity parties, debase the reader, or stoop to lowest-common-denominater invective and innuendo.
Good writing elevates, it doesn’t degrade.
And it’s still about tone.
The blogosphere is in its infancy; there is much growing up to do. In that process, much of what is now tolerated at HA and other extreme left blogs will have to be muted if not discarded altogether in order to gain acceptance and credibility.
Remember…this comes from one who has defended Goldy and HA on the pages of The Times.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ets30.html
How many of the HA Happy Hooligans can make the same claim?
The Piper
piper @9
Thanks for the enlightening post. You are right on as usual. Goldy is sounding more & more Republican every day.
We all know many Republicans are former Dems who laid down their emotion and began rational thinking (and screwed by the Government). Now, I’m not saying Goldy is by any means a consistent rational thinker. But there are seeds of hope. Let’s continue praying for Goldy…I’ll start:
Dear Lord, I ask you to intercede and guide Goldy thru this time where his head comes out of it’s normal dark, dank residence out into the sunshine. That Goldy not be fearful of reality. Help guide Goldy away from a life of profanity, guilt & anger. And also Lord, I ask that Goldy get his radio gig back.
Amen
Yes, Goldy, you’re a good writer — witty, perceptive, and entertaining — but I don’t think anyone will ever confuse you with a reporter or confuse HA with a newspaper. For my part, I’ll continue doing my best to make sure they don’t. =:-D
@14: Piper
While I admire your writing “skill”, your logical train of thought leaves something to be desired.
For instance, claiming that David Mamet (of the profanity laced play fame) deciding he is not a liberal is not a particularly convincing argument that Republicans are gaining any ground and undercuts the criticism of goldy for using profanity.
Secondly, here is the real data on republicans in this country – it doesn’t look good for the Grand OLD washed up Party People(GO-WUPPed). they are LOSING big time – not getting converts as you propose on another thread.
Link:
http://firstread.msnbc.msn.com.....64846.aspx
Selectively looking at an individual instead of the big picture – trying to draw inferences from anecdotes versus larger trends – those are classic logical errors. Try not to throw stones when you live in the republican glass house.
Also – What do republicans stand for now except shouting 9/11 and trying to scare people (while approving illegal spying and torture), spending us into huge budget deficits, nation building and creating unnecessary wars and corruption?
How much does it cost to create an initiative?
Why not submit one: “Equality for Media”
The text might simply state that taxation for any medium using words or pictures to inform the public should be on an equal basis.
In effect this would force the newspapers or the TV stations that attempt to create web based presences to compete on an eula turf with HA, Crosscut, etc.
One could go further and suggest a tax structure that would stimulate the creation of pluralistic media:
In order to encourage the creation of Washington State based forums for public discussion, no sales tax for advertising will be collected from the publisher of any medium that meets the following criteria:
1. Ownership must be greater than 50% WA state citizens.
2. Readership must be greater than ____
3. Employees engaged in this enterpise must be less than ____.
Goldy — if you stop writing and start flipping stocks (like me) you’ll cut your personal taxes by 2/3rds and your B & O tax rate will be 0%. Your problem is that you’re still stuck in the tired old 20th century work ethic. Work is punished! Under the New American Values system, you get higher pay and better tax rates for not working or producing anything. You need to get with the program, son. Emulate Republicans: Don’t work or produce anything, and you’ll do fine!
My reading is that blogs that are not adjuncts to newspapers are not affected.
@16…RR…
With friends like you, Goldy doesn’t need enemies.
The Piper
@17 cnr
You are correct. The Republican party is DOA because it pursued a nutty combination of ideas. There was nothihg conservative about claiming the state had a right to control choice of orifices in sex, moments of addition of a soul to a fetus, aggressive war as a strategy in the WOT, support for the Rimsfeld Follies, etc.
What you and other libruls do not understand, is that the support for true conservatism is still strong. That is why about 50% of tyhe Dimwit Party support Hillary rather than Obiwan. Look at her stands! She is for a constitutional amendment ot protect our flag, she wants to close the southern border to wetbacks and Mexican assembled cars, she supports big business so much that her minions through out the Jewish governor of New York, her best buddies in Congress are Brownback et al., her hubby flies around the world in a 737 provided by a foreign corpoaration and negotiates deal f for them????
Call it what you will, the silent majority will rule this country and see that,as always, America stands for the sucess of the few, the privileged, the entitled!
@19 Roger “Where’s the free handouts?” Rodent:
Your fairy-tale stock market with Monopoly money dosen’t count. I am glad that you admit that you are a totally unproductive and worthless member of society though. Perhaps you and YLB can share rides to the unemployment office. Call him-I think he lives in his parent’s basement somewhere near Greenlake.
The newspapers are whistling past the graveyard and all their tax breaks won’t help them. Anybody with half a brain reads them for free online and blocks all their ads anyway.
Traditional media is freaking out.
It’s hard to hang with Blogs, especially well-written and researched ones. I can’t read my local paper anymore — I can get much better and informed “news” on teh intarwebs.
@24 – so true! We subscribe to the Times Sunday edition only, yet they have been delivering daily for almost a year.
@17…CnR…
True, Mamet is known to “liberally” sprinkle four-letter colorful metaphors (as Spock called them in Star Trek IV) throughout his plays. But I needn’t endorse his usage thereof in order to applaud his coming of intellectual age, which he did in his essay.
While it is necessary to look at the larger picture in order to see things clearly, I submit that you need look at one larger than the image constrained by your own ideological blinders. Physician heal thyself.
The tide comes in, but it goes out again…
Today’s poll numbers mean nothing tomorrow, so don’t extrapolate too much from them or from today’s headlines.
It’s also true that the GOP has much for which it should atone, with earmarks and the general trend to imitate profligate Democrats when it comes to minding the fiscal store at the top of the list. The push-me-pull-you of taxes and spending still favor traditional Republican thinking – ask Washington voters who support Tim Eyman initiatives – it’s just that while many talk the talk, not enough walk the walk.
I’m excited by the relatively new Governor of Alaska, Sarah Palin (she’s going to have her fifth child in May) who is pushing back at the traditional pork barrel politics of Ted Stevens and Don Young; she’s the future while they’re the past.
BTW…MSNBC, from which you link something to support your POV, has the credibility and impartiality of…HA. Check the ratings.
Setting that aside for the moment, remember that the American people are notoriously fickle – they will confound you the instant you tell them that you have them figured out. So don’t take where they’re at today for granted or consider it in granite – they can turn on a dime given the right motivation.
Careful that you don’t get yourself caught up in your own sense of inevitability. A lot of Hillary Clinton’s current political situation came about because she pranced around with a sense of entitlement; the nomination was hers as a matter of quasi-divine right.
Eliot Spitzer hummed a variation on that tune: someone as bright and accomplished as he was is entitled to live both above and outside the law and societal norms.
A lot of Democrats – you? – are singing your own version without remembering that the election isn’t until November. Go back and look at the last several presidential elections and what the poll numbers and so-called “conventional wisdom” was at this point in the cycle.
And remember…your current “good fortune” is very fragile; all it takes is one slip-up by your Messiah de jour or one unforeseen and out-of-your-hands event to cause your bubble to burst. Go back and re-read the Mamet essay for his discussion of just this point.
In the meantime, we’ll continue the joust…on a friendly basis, eh what?
The Piper
Hey, I have an idea:
The rules say you have to publish a “newspaper” to get the tax reduction on the ad revenue from your blog. Well, then, do it if that’s what they want. Your “newspaper” would have no ads, all the regular content, be sent by snailmail, and have a yearly subscription price of, say, $1000.00. You have built-in discouragement of paper publishing, and subscriptions pay enough for plenty of carbon offsets. What’s not to like?
@18…BG…
Any idea how many Constitutional provisions your proposal violates?
Instead of creating some complicated regulatory scheme of dubious legality, why not simply get bloggers the same B&O rate as traditional newspapers?
Leave it to lefties to overcomplicate the simple and simplify the complex.
The Piper
@27: Piper
The revulsion by the general populace against the republican party is not based in any one individual (although much is it is directed at Bush – the titular head of the party and President that the republicans have blindly followed and voted with for over 7 years).
There are the multitude of scandals and particularly the Abramoff scandal that was a purely republican lobbyist money for favors scandal is is still bringing down republican congresscreatures. Bush is also invovled with this and Rove.
Then there are the other corruptions scandals (all of the Republicans in Alaska almost) -s so I find it ironic that you are touting a republican from alaska.
Then there are the huge budget deficits, the lack of regulation in the financial markets and the sub-prime mess, the job-loss economy, the breaks for shipping jobs and money overseas and the lobbyists influence on Washington.
There are the republican hypocrits like Vitter (who admitted seeing multiple prostitutes and has not resigned, the republican page scandal and Larry Craig. Pretending to be morally upright and then being caught and exposed as hypocrits doesn’t go over well. At least Spitzer resigned.
On top of that ordinary Americans don’t like torture or spying on Americans. We also don’t like retractive amnesty for crimes – even stinkin’ libruls are against having our kids pay off huge deficits and amnesty for crimes that rewards lawbreakers.
@30…CnR…
Careful…don’t confuse your personal opinions with public opinion generally.
Democrats have scandals of their own. Think Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick and Louisiana’s William Jefferson, and the scandal de jour of Eliot Spitzer.
There’s plenty of mud to be slung to and from.
Take note also that I haven’t been out there defending Larry Craig or David Vitter, so don’ tar me with their brush.
As to Gov. Sarah Palin? Before you condemn her, check her out at http://www.adn.com/front/story/343660.html
She’s going toe to toe with Ted Stevens pushing back his style of earmark politics.
Talk about a female governor of a western/PNW state with approval ratings through the roof, charisma, a great family, and political skills that are superb!
Sarah Palin makes Christine Gregoire look like Tugboat Annie!
The more I see of the whole tortue thing the more it resembles a tempest in a teapot for all save the left. Ditto the surveillance issue.
Americans are legitimately concerned about the possibility of another terrorist attack – 9/11 was a very real and big deal – and I don’t think they want the benefit of the doubt given to possible terrorists.
BTW…have you any data on the actual number of Americans allegedly spied upon? Who have been subject to any federal action?
And immunity for telecom firms will pass in both the DEMOCRATICALLY controlled House and the DEMOCRATICALLY controlled Senate – they recognize both the legimate issues at stake and the sense that the folks back home aren’t interested in pussyfooting.
Flux – things are always in flux.
The Piper
“BTW…have you any data on the actual number of Americans allegedly spied upon? Who have been subject to any federal action?”
Oh, come on. You know perfectly well that nobody outside of the agencies and the administration know those numbers. They have refused to release any details citing “national security considerations”, and then the inability to provide those details then becomes their defense to any lawsuits because the plaintiffs can’t prove that they were harmed.
I think those details might come out in 2009, but only if the records aren’t destroyed before then.
Of course, then, we Democrats will be in a position to use those same tools to spy on Republicans. But hey, you can trust us to only use those tools to spy on terrorists, can’t you? We don’t need any stinking wiretaps or judicial oversight, do we? ;)
Oh man Piper if you remember Tugboat Annie you have to be at least as old as I am. Gregoire doesn’t exactly look like Marie Dressler but I get the reference.
It’s off topic, (fancy that happening at HA), but the tug that starred in that long ago movie, the Arthur Foss, sits proudly at the south end of Lake Union.
A little trivia about a vanished Seattle that imports like Goldy would likely have no idea about.
Maybe you can make HorsesAss.Org:
(a) A publication issued regularly at stated intervals at least twice a month and printed on newsprint in tabloid or broadsheet format folded loosely together without stapling, glue, or any other binding any kind, including any supplement of a printed newspaper;
How much would it cost to print out token editions of HorsesAss.Org in newsprint, twice a month?
Goldy,
You’ve been pissing in Frank Blethen’s corn flakes for months, if not years. Did you think he was gonna sit there and take without doing anything?
People with money have power, and they use that power to get even.
CNR @ 30,
If Hillary and Barack don’t stop stepping all over themselves, the Dems will have a hard time defeating Bob Dole II (a.k.a. John McCain) in November. The Dems appear to be self-destructing and are likely to “coug” the election unless they stop destroying their own party.
30: Naw, they are just getting the “vetting” process out of the way. After they are through, nobody’s going to be able to use those tactics against them. Rove may still have something up his sleeve, but it isn’t going to work.
If we’re going OT…
Re Mamet:
http://alicublog.blogspot.com/.....7374400572
ivan says:
“The newspapers are whistling past the graveyard and all their tax breaks won’t help them. Anybody with half a brain reads them for free online and blocks all their ads anyway.”
Doggonnit ivan…is hell freezing over??
I finally agree with you on something!
Dang….I’m feeling…rather…faint.
@36…PI…
“Coug” the election – I like that, nice verb.
The Piper
Would not that be the sweetest headline ever next November?
Democrats “Coug”.
@29 Piper
as usual you have zero knowledge of what you speak.
There is nothing in the constitution that does not allow for tax breaks or progressive tax levels dependent on the location and size of the enterprise. Between the tneth amendment and the recent fight over the Stamp Act, I do not think the Founders woiuld have looked to kindly on the idea that Federal rather than the local government oculd control what was and was not taxed.
I know you are a failed attorney but like most psuedorepubs you seesm to make things up as you go.
Second as a true conservative, I get upset every time YOU claim to be a conservative. What a crock of dry, sun hardened horseshit that is. You know yu are a librul, that so why you defend GW Bush.
@31: Only that the FBI has already admitted to violating the constitution “numerous” times already.
http://www.breitbart.com/artic....._article=1
Ooops – we spied – our bad. but trust us now and rewrite the laws – we promise not to be bad children again. Right!
Now the NSA program turns out to be an illegal fishing expedition too.
http://online.wsj.com/article/.....whats_news
Also – every party will have individuals that have ethical lapses – but Abramoff was a Rove planned lobbyist inspired corruption scheme.
Piper has some valid points about Sarah Palin. Maybe there’s hope that some day people of reason will once again wrest control of the Republican Party from the present crop of delusionals and crooks. Maybe some day the Democratic Party will no longer be led by cowards.
However, notwithstanding that she’s indeed a nice looking lady, to imply that politics must be a beauty contest if the participants have ovaries is pretty lame.
44 To push that a little further, when Sarah Palin’s 17 years older (and let’s hope she isn’t unfortunate she doesn’t have to contend with cancer) I hope nobody says anything so insensitive about her. Of course, if she’s still involved in politics, no doubt somebody will.
Goldy,
Hardy har har! The shoe is on the other foot and it seems to be irritating you. I interpret your post to mean: “If I and my fellow bloggers can get the same tax break, no big deal. But since I didn’t get mine I’M PISSED!!” Welcome to the club. I hope you make some money some day so you can be even more pissed.
I’m with gipper @ 18 !! Good luck with the initiative, Goldy! It would be ironic to see you hire signature gatherers.
“dirty fucking hippies like” you…
You nailed that one, sport.
@42…Steve…
Ever heard of the Privileges and Immunities Clause of the 14th Amendment? Or both the Equal Protection and Due Process Clauses?
Your proposal:
“In order to encourage the creation of Washington State based forums for public discussion, no sales tax for advertising will be collected from the publisher of any medium that meets the following criteria:
1. Ownership must be greater than 50% WA state citizens.
2. Readership must be greater than ____
3. Employees engaged in this enterpise must be less than ____. ”
…fails because you can’t tax non-Washington citizens at a rate different than Washington citizens.
“The Supreme Court has struck down state laws that infringed rights guaranteed by the Privileges and Immunities Clause of Article IV. In Hicklin v. Orbeck, 437 U.S. 518, 98 S. Ct. 2482, 57 L. Ed. 2d 397 (1978), the Court ruled that the state of Alaska failed to show a reasonable purpose for a state law that required employers to give a hiring preference to in-state residents who applied to work on the construction of oil or gas pipelines.
However, the Supreme Court has used the Privileges and Immunities Clauses in two recent cases. In Lunding v. New York Tax Appeals Tribunal, 522 U.S. 287, 118 S.Ct. 766, 139 L.Ed.2d 717 (1998), the Court ruled that a New York tax law that effectively denied only nonresident taxpayers an Income Tax deduction for Alimony paid violated the Privileges and Immunities Clause. In Saenz v. Doe, 526 U.S. 489, 119 S.Ct. 1518, 143 L.Ed.2d 689 (1999), the Court struck down a California law that limited new residents to the Welfare benefits they would have received in the state of their prior residence. It based its decision in part on the Privileges and Immunities Clause. Justice John Paul Stevens stated that the right to travel is protected “not only by the new arrival’s status as a state citizen, but also by her status as citizen of the United States.” The Privileges and Immunities Clause guaranteed the right of a citizen to “become a citizen of any State of the Union.” It did not permit the states to “select their citizens.”
From http://legal-dictionary.thefre.....immunities
You can’t charge differing tax rates for citizens and non-citizens.
Additionally, no one in his right mind would start up such a venture without incorporating if for no other purpose than to take advantage of corporate limited liability. Since a corporation is considered different than its shareholders, on the surface your proposal is a flop.
Stick to test tubes and lab junk…
The Piper
Mark1 @ 1.
I would venture to say that Goldy’s writing ability is BETTER than most of the staff at the PI and Times.
As for the language, well, fucking don’t come here and read. Something is fucking making you come here to read the fucked up language that apparently just fucking pisses you off. That is truly fucked up. Don’t you think?
Fuck you!!
Goldy, maybe donate some of that ad revenue to Tim Eyman.
Im sure he would be glad to help in your time of need.
@50: Mark
Tim Eyeman is probably working on an initiative right now sponsored by the Blethens to screw over the little guy -that is the way Tim works. Big bucks for Tim – the people get screwed – and he claims it is for less taxes for the people but we end up paying more and his rich buddies like the BIAW get the low tax exemptions.
Goldy,
I think this is a golden opportunity for you and all Washington state bloggers. Get together with other bloggers from WA (or anywhere for that matter), and publish a newspaper with a flag listing all of your online sites. In the newspaper print just one leading article from each blog for the (bi)weekly edition (it doesn’t have to be complete). Create a compilation website with links to all the articles to make it simple for users to access the (complete) online versions. Sell ad space on the publication to pay for the paper. Split revenues/costs between blogs. All of the blogs get the tax break (possibly coming out ahead) Distribute it free but gravitate toward subscription with perks.
And walla, you are now not only a pull medium, but a push as well. In the end it could be free or revenue enhancing advertising for the blogs – creating more hits for you at a lower tax rate!
52 Typical democrat, bitch about Bushs’ tax cuts then try to scam the state for a lousy 1 percent savings. Fucking
nimby.
I wonder at what point it would become more economical to pay for a small run of newspapers (100 or so) to be distributed in one newspaper box twice a month to qualify as a “newspaper”.
I wonder what the lawmakers would have to say about that one!
@49 My smelly left foot:
Was that supposed to hurt me? None of it pisses me off, just pointing out the difference between real reporters, journalists, which your teeny little mind apparently cannot comprehend. Fitting that your “handle” smells a lot like what spews out of your mouth. Now go back to the other side of the tracks like a good boy.
Piper,
Sarah Palin is pretty bullet-proof. Approval ratings in the 80s, anti-pork, young, oldest son joined the military. Literally, the Dems have nothing on her. I predict a VP slot in 2012. Heck, maybe run for President instead? If Obama with NO accomplishments can get the nomination, surely a GOVERNOR with 6 years of accomplishments by 2012 is even MORE qualified, no?
55;
Dear Mark1,
ROFLMAO!! If I “go back to the other side of the tracks” I would be joining you and your trailer dwelling trash in the Kent mobile home park.
Fuck you, again.
@48 Piper
There iosa phenomnon in all life called beating up on the other guy using credentials.
I would LOVE to see this issue debated hby a person with more legal knowledge than I. However, in the absence of such a person, I do not see the relvance of your argument.
For example, stses obvioulsy have the right to tax and do tax differentially based on where a business is located. If a tax can be higher, why can not it also be lower?
Also, as we all know all to well, states routinely provide tax ssusidies for industries that locate in state and , in thi9s case, even distinguish between companies on bases specifically associated with the specific company.
On a local level, contracts with cable comopnaies are clearly very speciufic as to content.