Posted on 06/01/2017 7:35:12 AM PDT by PROCON
An overwhelming number of people spoke in support of a citywide income tax in Seattle on Wednesday at City Hall.
People in support of taxing the richest residents cited everything from simple justice, to the untapped pool of money that could be used to deal with pressing problems like homelessness and drug abuse.
The proposed tax would be 1.5 percent on adjusted gross income over $250,000 per year. Councilmember Lisa Herbold says there are still many undecided details, chiefly how that income level would be calculated.
The legal basis for such a selective tax is shaky and whatever the final form, legal analysts and the city attorneys office believe there would be a legal fight to make the tax stick. But that isnt quieting support for such a tax.
They stole from the workers, so rise up and tax the rich, please, one public speaker said.
The Seattle Democratic Socialists of America, the Seattle Transit Riders Union, and other groups encouraged people to pack City Hall.
Stewart with Trump Proof Seattle told a packed house that by taxing the rich, Seattle truly has a chance to be a sanctuary city.
So you know the saying, the rich get richer and the poor get poorer? Well in Seattle, this is not just a truism, but an acute reality, another speaker said.
According to KIRO 7, citing a report, Seattle has the most regressive state and local tax system in the country.
Regressive tax means the rate goes down as personal incomes go higherlower income earners pay higher tax rates than the highest earners. The proposal would reverse that and create a progressive tax where the wealthiest pay the highest tax rate.
Proponents say it would create a more even playing field in a city thats becoming too expensive for low to middle-income taxpayers to afford.
However, others say the majority of the wealthiest taxpayers in the city are small business owners, managers, and professionals with incomes of $250,000 or more.
Some, including former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer, has warned of an income tax and what it could do to business in the city.
In Seattles case, it is a beautiful place to live, he said. It is a place, now, that is a center of talent in the tech industry, and success and talent will breed startups and more of that sort of thing. What are the things that can undo it? Unfavorable business climate.
An income tax would be included in that unfavorable business climate.
I left Washington state six years ago. They have no income tax at all. It would take a vote of the people to enact such a thing and it always loses. Meanwhile, I now work in Louisville, KY. and, yes, there is a city income tax. Actually, it is the county that the city engulfs, but there are cities here with income taxes. This is an income tax state.
Washington is not.
I have lived in Communist countries. It is absolutely no surprise to me that when the Soviet Union finally collapsed, within a very short time, high-level, politically-connected people (oligarchs) had taken control of all the productive enterprises of the country. I'm not saying the USA is exactly the same, but the more a nation centralizes political power, it ipso facto politicizes everything it touches, and centralize economic power, and thus leads to stagnation as well as outsized benefits to those few in charge.
The people of Seattle should learn a lesson from the US income tax. It started out and was only accepted because it was only on the rich and very rich with a max of 6%. It may start out at 1.5% and only on 250,000 or more. But it will continue to expand because there is a voracious appetite for stolen money.
El correcto. No one in their right mind wants to live in the crime-ridden, drug-ridden, vagrant-ridden craphole called Seattle.
stupid liberals. The so called rich can avoid taxes with financial planning and just leaving the state. The enemies are destroying themselves.
covfefe
(in the end we win)
Not sure if it’s the same elsewhere, but the poverty level in WA in $70K. I never made $70K in my working life and was never considered poor. The idiots in Seattle are delusional.
Stealing other people’s money is immoral even if you vote to do it.
And that’s all this is, stealing. They identify who has money and take it because it is there, no other reason.
It’s always been the liberal mantra: “Tax the rich”. If a Seattle income tax is passed, just sit back and watch the exodus.
Looks like a good time to invest in Redmond, WA real estate.
Taxing income at $250,000 or more doesn’t tax the rich. It simply punishes those that are trying to get rich and will make it harder to get rich. The real rich laugh at income based taxes.
I have a similar problem. My employer has "bricks and mortar" in every state and 30 countries. When I travel to another company location, I'm compelled to record the zip code on my time card. The consequence is that I have to file income tax in CA and sometimes NE in addition to my state of residence, ID. CA taxes me, but I have no voice as a voter since I'm an ID resident. Taxation without representation. Frankly, I pay more CA state income tax than many CA state residents.
This year I'm trying to avoid any more visits to San Diego than absolutely required. Instead of the original "one week per month", I've restrained it to one visit total in 2017 as of the current time. Thus far, no calls to Omaha. It only takes ONE visit to either spot to force a W2 and extra state filing.
City attorneys said the pesky 1st Amendment wouldn't allow it.
Please study the recent history of CT. There was no income tax in the 80’s. It was installed as a TEMPORARY fixer to the budget deficit. Still here today and the rate go up and up. Businesses go bye and bye. Death spiral.
Heck, there are plenty of cities with an income tax. Kansas City has had an “e-tax” for over twenty years. I think it is currently 1% of gross for those working in the city limits.
That’s still half the local income tax Pittsburgh residents pay.
pretend to tax only the "rich" and suddenly, its the upper middle class and then the middle...
Washington is an income tax free state, but they have tried for decades to impose a state income tax...
this Seattle crap is just the start of the process...
Flea
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