HorsesAss.Org

  • Home
  • About HA
  • Advertise
  • Archives
  • Donate

It’s Chilly in Hell: Seattle Times Endorses State Capital Gains Tax

by Goldy — Monday, 4/6/15, 6:50 am

The Seattle Times editorial board has long supported spending more money on K-12, higher education, and other essentially services, it just never wanted to raise the taxes necessary to pay for it. Until now:

If some new revenue is needed — and that appears to be the case — the Legislature should vet a capital-gains tax proposal offered by the House Democrats. It is more conservative than Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposal, hitting relatively few wealthy households, while accounting for the volatility of capital gains with a dedicated fund that would fill in go-go years and could be drawn down in slowdowns.

Whether the Legislature is capable of such fiscal restraint — and not spending every dime, every year — is an open question. A serious proposal would lock revenues in a rainy-day fund, accessible only with supermajority. The Legislature also needs to weigh the potential to chase away startups seeking to launch in a state without an income tax. But the capital-gains tax is a provocative idea, and could ease a regressive tax code that favors Seattle’s accumulating tech wealth.

Of course, this capital gains tax proposal neither raises enough money to fill our K-12 funding shortfall, nor makes anything but a small correction in this, our nation’s most regressive tax structure. But it’s a modest step in the right direction, and a hopeful sign that our state’s paper of record may be willing to have a grown up conversation about taxes.

Related

3 Stoopid Comments

Comments

  1. Derek spews:

    Monday, 4/6/15 at 7:07 am

    We’ll see if the State Senate is ready to talk about that too. Our state should put a freeze on the sales tax. Time to come up with some new ideas.

  2. Roger Rabbit spews:

    Monday, 4/6/15 at 10:34 am

    “The Legislature also needs to weigh the potential to chase away startups seeking to launch in a state without an income tax.”

    Never mind that our regressive B&O tax chases away new businesses and drives out old ones. It would be hard to enact ANY tax as regressive as the ones we already have.

    Our tax system needs a funeral and burial not a patch job with a bandaid or two.

  3. SSHH spews:

    Monday, 4/6/15 at 12:11 pm

    Where would these startups go anyway? Almost every other state taxes capital gains, and at rates either equal to or higher then this rate.

    California’s tax rate on capital gains is around 2x this proposed rate and that hasn’t seemed to kill their startup economy.

Recent HA Brilliance…

  • Wednesday Open Thread Wednesday, 10/8/25
  • Drinking Liberally — Seattle Tuesday, 10/7/25
  • Monday Open Thread Monday, 10/6/25
  • Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza! Friday, 10/3/25
  • Drinking Liberally — Seattle Tuesday, 9/30/25
  • Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza! Friday, 9/26/25
  • Drinking Liberally — Seattle Tuesday, 9/23/25
  • Boycott KOMO-4 Open Thread Monday, 9/22/25
  • Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza! Friday, 9/19/25
  • Drinking Liberally — Seattle Tuesday, 9/16/25

Tweets from @GoldyHA

I no longer use Twitter because, you know, Elon is a fascist. But I do post occasionally to BlueSky at @goldy.horsesass.org

From the Cesspool…

  • Klanstone Kops on Wednesday Open Thread
  • Heckuva Job Trumpy on Wednesday Open Thread
  • The Echo Chamber on Wednesday Open Thread
  • Ngo, is that a Swedish name? on Wednesday Open Thread
  • The Echo Chamber on Wednesday Open Thread
  • Sleepy Joe on Drinking Liberally — Seattle
  • QAnon getting the band back together on Drinking Liberally — Seattle
  • ICE on Drinking Liberally — Seattle
  • Go ahead. Make my day. on Drinking Liberally — Seattle
  • Trump TimeOut on Drinking Liberally — Seattle

Please Donate

Currency:

Amount:

Archives

Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?

Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!

Search HA

Follow Goldy

I no longer use Twitter or Facebook because Nazis. But until BlueSky is bought and enshittified, you can still follow me at @goldy.horsesass.org

HA Commenting Policy

It may be hard to believe from the vile nature of the threads, but yes, we have a commenting policy. Comments containing libel, copyright violations, spam, blatant sock puppetry, and deliberate off-topic trolling are all strictly prohibited, and may be deleted on an entirely arbitrary, sporadic, and selective basis. And repeat offenders may be banned! This is my blog. Life isn’t fair.

© 2004–2025, All rights reserved worldwide. Except for the comment threads. Because fuck those guys. So there.