The Religious Coalition for Tax Reform (www.lppowa.org) is one of many groups sponsoring the signing of Initiative 1098, and I want to encourage you, the reader, to sign on to this class-based progressive writ of justice. Basically, Washington state has one of the most, if not the most, regressive tax systems in the nation.
Economics 101 teaches us that to sustain oneself, a person needs enough income to pay the bills necessary for survival. Scratching together a wee bit of surplus income means that one can move past survival and begin to thrive. Thriving is a good thing particularly when the whole community can thrive together.
Thriving together was one of America's great idealisms. It's why we have public parks and public beaches and public streets and public fire stations. It's called commonwealth and it used to be that many of us, most of us, thought commonwealth was a good idea. Early on in the 20th century, folks started doing some serious thinking about how badly a wee tiny elite of stratospheric filthy rich folk (Rockefellers, Mellons, DuPonts, Morgans, Carnegies, etc.) were making basic life almost impossible. So folks got together and realized that there were way more of us normal folk than filthy rich folk, and that votes ought to have some currency and sway over the policies of politicians.
We got a progressive tax system out of that. Essentially, we said that the more income you have, the more you pay back into the commonwealth. It was a cap on wealth so that we could throttle down aristocracy and give democracy new birth. It eventually led to new regulations on business, the rise of labor unions, and the FDR-inspired reforms that created new possibility in America.
Today we're having trouble with robber barons again. Once again the system is out of balance with too much wealth and power accruing into the piggy little paws of the grossly financial obese. We need to put them on a diet for their own good, and ours as well. Like FDR, Bill Gates Sr. has become a class traitor (i.e., he thinks being a human being is something important to be), and advocates for tax reform and a return to a more just and equal sharing of costs and benefits.
Folks like Gates and the Religious Coalition for Tax Reform are hot to trot to obtain signatures to put I-1098 on the ballot. The measure would provide dedicated funding for education and health care by creating an income tax for couples who earn more than $400,000 a year ($200,000 for individuals)