Dr. Wes
If we flip the script on state taxes, the wealthy investor will finally get to play the role of his
We need a state constitutional amendment that says any law to raise the requirement to pass a law has to meet the same level of majority to pass as it would require of future laws. So you could have a law to require a 99 percent majority in the legislature to raise taxes if and when you could pass such a restriction with 99 percent of the vote.
We now wait for the state supreme court to dig us out of a mess because less than two-thirds of the electorate decided they had the right to demand that future increases in taxes should require two-thirds votes in the state legislature.
All the U.S. Supreme Court has to do is see the bullshit in that proposition. Hint: The illogic stinks. Follow your nose, Supremes.
Meanwhile, Washington remains a state that refuses to see the sense of putting away property taxes and sales taxes and replacing them all, or in part, with an income tax.
I completely get it. You want the chance to get off easy when you’re rich. You may not be rich now, but you figure that if we can just keep the other poor people down, you’ll rise to the top of the slag heap. You don’t want to have to pay extra taxes in that case. It’s understandable.
But, really, Washingtonians? Property taxes? You want to keep property taxes? Are you all stupid?
Come on. Property taxes are way too progressive for you people. Poor people don’t pay their fair share. Why should you, with your mansion, have to pay more than me, with what I don’t have? Washington’s sales tax is delightfully regressive, but we can do better. And the property tax is way too progressive. It has to be radically twisted to protect the rich and screw the poor.
Here’s what I propose: Stand the state sales tax on its head. Right now, everything is taxed except food. That makes no sense. It’s absolutely backwards.
In order for this state to be a haven for the rich investor class, we need to tax only food. That’s fair because everyone eats. Tax it at a percentage that nets the same income as the current tax. I’d guess a 100 percent tax on food would do it. Once rich people finish eating they’ll be done paying sales taxes, and they can slide on things that matter, like sports cars and stereos, dancing horses and jewelry. Then they will still have money left over to create jobs, to hire the people who haven’t starved yet.
The property tax is the one that needs the most fixing. It’s not right that he who has the biggest and most expensive property pays more. After all, if the only house you have is a cardboard box, then you are as much housed as a man lying on cardboard in his 10-room house. And anyway, why should we let someone off the tax hook just because they don’t contribute to the economy by buying a house?
In fact, everyone should have to pay property taxes just for the privilege of living in this great state, a state where anyone who has money has the right to buy stuff.
So we need to just tax everyone for that privilege equally. You all have the privilege to accumulate property. You all should pay an equal amount for that privilege, whether you choose to exercise it or not.
I estimate everyone’s tax bill would be a measly $3,000 a year if my proposals were adopted. If you were making the median income for the state, that would be about 5 percent of your income. You would be thrilled to live here and invest here and make happy jobs here.
Meanwhile, if your income was below the poverty threshold for a single person, your taxes by my proposal would be around about 25 percent, and you’d probably go bankrupt just trying to eat. That would be a lesson to you. You need to just work until you die.
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