Personally, I don’t look to the Seattle Times for this kinda stuff anymore. Like most people today, I purchase most of my seniors on Craigslist.
(All snark aside, if there’s anything that makes daily newspapers essential, it’s investigative reporting like this.)
On Friday, Slog reported that an income tax initiative had been filed, prompting the following commentary from the Secretary of State’s office:
“You cannot have a graduated state income tax without amending the state constitution. The court has been clear on that,” says Dave Ammons, spokesman for the Secretary of State.
To which I have two main responses. First, the Washington State Supreme Court last explicitly ruled on this issue way back in 1933; our current slate of Supreme Court justices have never addressed this issue, and as the precedent flouting majority on the U.S. Supreme Court recently demonstrated, the opinions of the current justices are the only ones that matter. Second — and I mean this with all due respect to Dave Ammons, Secretary of State Sam Reed and the rest his office — it’s none of their fucking business.
To elaborate on my second point first, up until the moment the petitions are filed, the Secretary of State’s role in the initiative process is purely administrative, and even then the grounds for rejecting petitions are quite limited, so I can’t help but wonder why Ammons would comment on the measure’s constitutionality at all? I don’t remember Reed’s office commenting on the constitutionality of any of Tim Eyman’s initiatives. Hell, I’ve seen the SOS quietly process initiatives that don’t even amount to a complete sentence.
So while I’ve no doubt that Reed personally opposes an income tax, his office has no business nor expertise in commenting on its constitutionality.
Which brings us back to my first point, the constitutional question itself. I’ve written extensively on this subject, most recently highlighting this excerpt from the Washington State Tax Structure Committee report:
[T]here is ample reason to believe that a modern income tax, established by the Legislature or by the voters, would now be upheld. The basic reason is that [Culliton v. Chase] was based on an earlier Washington case which the State Supreme Court clearly misread. More importantly, the earlier case was based on a line of United States Supreme Court cases that have subsequently been reversed. Our Court would likely take a “clean slate” approach to the income tax today.
See that? Courts sometimes overturn earlier decisions, both old and new. Indeed, the SCOTUS just overturned a century of precedent on campaign finance law — precedent it had upheld as recently as seven years ago — so it’s kinda silly to dismiss a state income tax as patently unconstitutional based on a 77-year-old 5-4 decision that has left Washington with a legal definition of “income” that is at odds with virtually every other court in the nation, state and federal.
Furthermore, if you read the text of the proposed initiative, it becomes instantly clear that the authors have bent over backwards to accommodate the bizarre semantics that constitute our state’s current legal framework on the subject — one which, for example, allows the state to levy a nonuniform business tax on gross revenue, but not on net revenue (i.e., income). Aping the language of our existing Business & Occupation tax, the measure attempts to levy a 5% “excise tax” on joint adjusted gross incomes over $400,000 a year (9% on the portion over $1 million), while simulating exemptions by redefining the tax otherwise due as a “credit.”
Split hairs all you want, but it’s hard to understand how a reasonable person could define gross personal income as property but gross business income as not. That’s a distinction without a difference that could just as easily give today’s court the grounds to invalidate our existing B&O tax as it would the income tax this initiative proposes.
But all that is neither here nor there. The Secretary of State’s job at the moment is merely to assign the initiative a number, and transmit it back and forth between the sponsor, the Code Reviser and the Attorney General. If petitions are ultimately filed, his job will be to count and verify the signatures, and if the signature threshold is met, his next and final task will be to assure that the initiative properly appears on the ballot. At no point is the question of the measure’s constitutionality of any official concern to the Secretary of State or his spokesman.
As for the Attorney General, his job would be to defend the measure in court should it ultimately pass and be challenged, thus any effort on his part to publicly question the initiative’s constitutionality would present a conflict of interest that could undermine his ability fulfill his own office’s constitutional duties.
Indeed, as I’ve previously written, the whole constitutional question is a red herring intended to quash public debate on this very important issue. And that is the context within which Ammons’ comment should be understood.
Last week’s contest was won by Dave Gibney. It was Calexico, California.
This week’s is a challenge. If no one gets this by Monday morning, I’ll post up a clue. Good luck!
Psalm 137:9
Happy is the one who takes your babies and smashes them against the rocks!
Discuss.
As a follow-up to Goldy’s post below, there’s already a group organizing an initiative for Washington. It’s called Sensible Washington and they expect to release the final wording of their initiative and begin signature gathering by March 1. Their initiative is not expected to specify the state liquor stores as the distributors, but will only legalize possession for adults. The state would then be on the hook for setting up regulations for where and how it can be sold.
One of the concerns of legalization advocates (both Goldy and I share this concern) is that there won’t be enough money to collect the necessary signatures. As the top post at Sensible Washington points out, PayPal has a history of freezing the accounts of drug law reform groups, and banks won’t work with them. I’d be curious to know how much of this results from archaic rules and misconceptions about drug law reform, and how much comes from potential crackdowns from the federal government. As for Paypal, one clue might be that one of its founders considers the era of alcohol prohibition as the last great era of American politics (I guess that makes him a libertarian).
So for now, they’re taking mail-in donations before a volunteer army of signature gatherers hit the ground across the state to put this initiative on the ballot. There’s certainly enthusiasm for drug law reform right now, but no one is really sure whether it will be enough to qualify. I guess we’re about to find out.
UPDATE (Goldy):
As an followup to Lee’s followup, Sensible Washington’s account of their difficulties in securing credit card processing is worth a read. On the one hand, if millionaire investment banker Michael Dunmire wants an initiative on the ballot, he just writes Tim Eyman a check; on the other hand, if a group of grassroots activists wants to raise money online from small contributors, the banks won’t give them a merchant account, out of fear of I don’t know what.
So much for “direct democracy.”
That said, I emailed the folks at Sensible Washington earlier today to suggest that they set up an account with ActBlue, the same progressive online fundraising site through which we collectively raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for Darcy Burner. ActBlue is now set up to handle state legislative and initiative campaigns in Washington state, in addition to federal races, a feature that R-71 made good use of last year.
Marijuana legalization appears headed to the ballot in California, after initiative organizers turned 700,000 petition signatures, well above the 433,000 required.
If California voters approve, it will be the most comprehensive reform of marijuana laws ever undertaken in the United States. While some states, such as Oregon, have relatively lax penalties for possession, no state has attempted to regulate and tax the herb before.
The measure’s chances are good: A poll taken last April found that 56 percent of Californians want to see the herb legalized and taxed.
According to the L.A. Times, the measure would make it legal for anyone over 21 to own an ounce or less of pot, and to grow pot for personal use in a space no larger than 25 square feet. It would also give cities the right to license marijuana growers and sellers, and to collect taxes on the crop.
Give me half a million dollars to buy the signatures, and I could get a similar measure on the 2010 ballot here in Washington, although I would prefer a measure that relies on our existing state store system to handle sales and distribution. In fact, I’d actually be a pretty good figurehead for the campaign, as I don’t actually use the stuff myself.
Pot prohibition has proven costly, unworkable and counterproductive, and the state could really use the revenue legalization would produce. At the risk of prompting the obvious retort, legalization is really a no-brainer.
I know it’s kinda hip to complain about Rep. Jim McDermott, even amongst local Democrats. But everytime I find myself sitting in a room with him, listening to him speak, I’m reminded why I’m not one of these whiners.
It’s common knowledge that state Sen. Pam Roach (R-Auburn) doesn’t exactly have a reputation for working and playing well with others, but Jesus… how disruptive do you have to be, to be too disruptive to fit in with the Party of No?
State Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn, has been banned from the Senate Republican caucus after colleagues told her she has repeatedly mistreated staff and should get counseling to manage her anger.
A letter sent to Roach by Senate GOP leaders said an internal investigation had concluded “it would be best to physically separate you from the caucus staff and from other Republican Senators while we are working on the floor.”
Anger management counseling? I’m guessing that really pissed her off!
And I’m not sure you want to piss off Pam Roach. Well known for pulling a gun on an aide, and widely rumored to have been the tipster behind the Spokesman-Review’s sting of boy-trolling then-Mayor and former state Sen. Jim West, it’s no surprise that even her fellow Republicans are so afraid of their colleague that they’ve all but filed for a restraining order.
All of which is a welcome opportunity for a replay of Roach’s famous “Roses” speech.
[audio:https://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/roses.mp3]Always brings tears to my eyes.
Oh, and coincidentally, I received an email today from Ron Weigelt, announcing his attention to challenge Roach for her 31st District seat. Don’t know anything about him, but he’d have to be awfully damn crazy to out-crazy Roach.
Isn’t it funny how when Washington voters, by whatever slim margin, pass one of Tim Eyman’s tax cutting initiatives, the editors at the Seattle Times applaud their wisdom and argue that it would be an unconscionable violation of the will of the people to amend or overturn said measure, even years later?
See, anti-tax/anti-government initiatives, that’s direct democracy at its finest. But when voters approve a tax increase, well, not so much…
Even the most avid referendum supporter will admit the limitation of the process is it asks a simple up-or-down question. In the case of the two measures, the questions could be boiled down to: “Would you like to raise taxes on someone other than yourself?”
No wonder Oregon voters said yes by a margin of roughly 54 percent for both proposals.
Shorter Seattle Times: stupid voters.
Bellevue real estate mogul Kemper Freeman Jr., as usual, attempting to fuck light rail
Seattle Transit Blog’s Ben Schiendelman dares to suggest that Kemper Freeman Jr. opposes light rail through downtown Bellevue because he doesn’t want lower-income rail-riders driving away the “high-class clientele” at Bellevue Square and his other ritzy properties… an assertion that has Freeman’s nursemaid’s undies in a knot:
But Bruce Nurse, vice president of Kemper Development, says, “It’s very presumptuous of Mr. Schiendelman to speculate on Kemper Freeman’s market philosophy. Kemper Freeman has always welcomed the region’s residents and visitors to downtown Bellevue… regardless of age or income.”
Really? Huh. Speculating that Kemper Freeman fucks goats, now that would be presumptuous (although I have my suspicions), but categorizing Freeman’s market philosophy as somewhere to the right of Rich Uncle Pennybags, well, that’s about as speculative as predicting a Seattle Times editorial endorsement. (November, 2012: “Rob McKenna for Governor; a different kind of Republican.” You mark my words.)
I mean, honestly, a downtown Bellevue light rail alignment would bring thousands of additional customers a day to Freeman’s high-rent properties, so as a businessman, why the hell wouldn’t he want a stop as nearby as possible? Unless, of course, light rail would bring the wrong kind of people. You know, poor people. And by that, I mean people of color.
Oh, I’m sorry, am I being presumptuous?
Maybe, but it’s not like Kemper Freeman’s own personal fortune wasn’t built upon the vicious racism and ruthless, um, market philosophy of his grandfather, Miller Freeman.
That same year, Freeman began to take an interest in Japanese- American relations; i.e., Americans should understand that Japanese “yellow” clashed with red, white, and blue. Until his death in 1955, Miller Freeman avidly pursued his anti-Japanese obsession, and his Eastside real estate business grew as a direct result.
Freeman owned several newspapers, including the Bellevue American and Town Crier, and used them as vehicles for his racist blather. “Japanese population and power in the western Unites States is increasing at a sure, accumulative rate,” he once said, “which will inevitably give the white man his choice between subjugation and retreat.” As the president of the Anti-Japanese League of Washington, and as a Washington state legislator, he led a campaign that culminated in the passage of the Alien Land Law of 1921, which forbade people of Japanese descent from owning land– or even leasing it. Shortly thereafter, Freeman began buying up cheap land on the Eastside, formerly home to thousands of successful Japanese farmers. In 1925 he bought land in Medina; three years later he moved his family into a new mansion there.
After Pearl Harbor, Miller Freeman saw another opportunity to screw over Japanese Americans, and make a profit, too. He went to Washington, D.C, to urge the Tolan Committee to lock up people of Japanese descent. And he kept up his racist rantings in his newspapers, calling the Japanese an “insoluble race” bent on “infiltration.”
With Japanese Americans tucked away in internment camps, Freeman was able to reap the full benefits of the new Mercer Island Floating Bridge (which he had lobbied to have built, and which opened in 1940). The Eastside, cleansed of its Asian-American population, was now safe for white businessmen, largely due to the efforts of Miller Freeman. His son, the first Kemper Freeman, built the original Bellevue Square, after convincing his father to buy a piece of land along 104th Avenue Northeast.
Yeah, I know, sins of the father and all that, so I wouldn’t want to be so presumptuous as to suggest that Kemper Freeman Jr. holds any of the same anti-Japanese sentiments as his beloved grandfather. But even if Freeman’s staunch opposition to a downtown Bellevue light rail alignment has absolutely nothing at all to do with race, to suggest, as Freeman’s Nurse does, that he welcomes all of the region’s residents to downtown Bellevue, “regardless of age or income,” just doesn’t hold up to Freeman’s own public statements:
“When you walk through the (Southcenter) mall, the way the customer dresses just to shop there — the light blue and pink hair curlers, the shoes that flop, flop, flop along — it’s a completely different customer,” said Freeman. “Yet we are 12 miles apart.”
Yup, about the only thing that separates Freeman and his upscale Bellevue Square from the curlers and flip-flops of déclassé Southcenter is 12 short miles. That, and about a half century of progress in Americans’ attitudes toward race.
The truth is, everybody knows that Freeman is a bit of an OCD, neo-Bircher nutcase with a Christ-like devotion to the automobile and a penchant for equating mass transit with communism (really), so isn’t it time that serious people started taking him and his anti-rail conspiracies at face value? Isn’t it time to call a spade a spade (so to speak)? I don’t mean to diminish Freeman’s standing as Bellevue’s (presumably) racist/classist, rich, crazy uncle, but is that really enough of a reason to give him a greater voice in our region’s transportation debate than folks like, say, Schiendelman, who, you know, actually know what the fuck they’re talking about?
And honestly, given Freeman’s shameful family history, is it really all that presumptuous to speculate that his dogged opposition to a downtown Bellevue light rail alignment might stem from something a little more than an informed position on transportation planning, or even mere economic self-interest? Am I really taking his words and deeds out of context by attempting to place Freeman in it?
As a native Philadelphian — a city where thousands of ordinary people lay themselves down to bed each night in houses that predate George Washington — I’ve always been struck by how folks out here in his namesake so easily forget our region’s own short history. I mean, it’s not like there’s all that much of it. Hell… I’ve tasted wine older than Bellevue.
No doubt Freeman isn’t our region’s only civic meddler whose family fortune was founded on land stolen from the Japanese-American families who broke their backs clearing it of old-growth stumps, but while it would be wrong to attempt to define Freeman solely by his family history, it would be equally wrong to ignore it when attempting to discern his political motives.
I suppose we could speculate that Freeman inherited nothing more from his grandfather than his dirty, tear-stained money, but… well… that would strike me as awfully damn presumptuous.
The Christianist nutball who killed Dr. George Tiller has been found guilty of first degree murder murder by a jury of his peers. The jury supposedly took only about 15 minutes to reach its decision.
I don’t see why we can’t try terrorists in the court system, it seems to work just fine.
Correction 10:53 AM–According to The Los Angeles Times, the jury took 37 minutes to convict Scott Roeder, and Roeder faces life in prison.
Once you realize that you’re not reading the Onion and that Sally Quinn – who gained her prestigious Washington Post column by having an affair with a married Ben Bradlee – is being completely serious, you’ll know everything you need to about why left and right alike despise the Washington elite, why our serious national concerns never seem to get solved, and why daily newspaper circulation is plummeting. It’s all there.
Scott Morgan provides the appropriate amount of snark for Liberty High School’s counterproductive method of dealing with students who possess marijuana.
UPDATE: At least those Liberty High students weren’t minorities in New York City.
Joel Connelly says musclebound congressman Dave Reichert hasn’t ruled out a run against incumbent U.S. Senator Patty Murray:
Rumors in Washington, D.C., this week have Reichert being encouraged to run against Murray. “They didn’t come from me,” he joked, saying he has not been nudged by the National Republican Senatorial Committee.
But Reichert would not rule out a Senate race.
Well, I don’t know if the NRSC has been nudging Reichert to challenge Murray, but I wouldn’t be surprised if King County Councilman Reagan Dunn were to give him a shove, if only indirectly. Long the heir apparent to his late mother’s old seat, Dunn would likely be the big winner of a Reichert v. Murray contest. Reichert… not so much.
Apparently, according to President Obama, the state of the union is strong. Who knew?
UPDATE:
Rudy Giuliani is a hero. Or a liar. Like many Americans, I often get the two confused.
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