Sound Transit has a big funding package it's proposing. Actually, it's putting together three packages and will select one of them for the 2007 November ballot.
I say "yahoo!" that we're thinking ahead to what we'll need in 2030. Because if we don't this region will be nearly untenable as a place to live or drive.
What worries me is that the only way they have to finance any of the three deals is with sales tax. Really? 3, 4, or 5 tenths of cent would be added to our sales tax, which in Tacoma is already 8.8%. We have got to--GOT TO--go to an income tax. I would much prefer an income tax system for the state and then projects like Sound Transit, etc, wouldn't feel like such a hit on our sales tax. Because even the 3/10 of a cent increase on sales tax is going to feel big since it puts us over 9 %. That's a bad reason to tank a great set of proposals.
Getting rid of the sales tax and replacing it with the income tax should make sense both Democrats and Republicans. First, we lower the cost of goods, especially major items, thus stimulating business. And we lift some of the tax burden off of the poorest citizens who pay disproprotionately higher with a sales tax than they would with an income tax. Everybody wins!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
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1 comments:
I think that one reason why we've been seeing all of the anti-tax initiatives is partly because the majority of the people are actually overtaxed because the sales tax disproportionately hits people with lower incomes. And since the majority of us don't make huge amounts of money, there is the overall feeling that we are overtaxed.
The League of Women Voters of Washington and Pierce County has been fighting for a state income tax for quite some time for many reasons. You can read some of their material at:
http://lwvwa.org/state-tax_study/2004%20Summary.pdf
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