The Washington Income Excise Tax Initiative.
We read today of an initiative which has been filed with the secretary of state’s office. Seattle Times. The proponents would like to go ahead and gather signatures so that a law they propose would go to the voters for approval. The law which is being proposed is quite interesting. It involves the imposition of a new tax. And, the spending of the money for education and to provide an exemption of smaller businesses from the state’s business and occupation tax. Initiative Measure No. 1077. There are many details but what I have mentioned is enough for now.
The tax is an excise tax. I have never heard of an excise tax on income before. The notion is that if you make a certain amount of money, or beyond a certain amount of money in the case of No. 1077 you are going to pay a tax, an excise. Why is that not simply an income tax?
Who is going to pay the tax? People who are rich in income. The income amount starts at $200,000 for an individual and $400,000 for a couple. More on this at this Seattle Times article.
The initiative is betting on the success of a shear politics. The people who are going to pay the tax will not sign it or vote for it if it gets on the ballot. They are sorely outnumbered by other people who will sign it and who will vote for it. These people are predominantly the group the proponents of the initiative would like to give benefits to – property owners whose property taxes will go down and small business owners and their supporters who will become exempt from business and occupation taxes.
It looks a lot like the hope of the legislation is that the have nots will pass laws so as to get benefits at the expense of the others who have money but less political clout.
This reminds me of a book called the Theory of Social Evolution written in 1913 by Brooks Adams, the great-grand son of our second President, John Adams. The essence of The Theory of Social Evolution can be found in the introduction to the work at Librivox:
He believed that commercial civilizations rise and fall in predictable cycles. First, masses of people draw together in large population centers and engage in commercial activities. As their desire for wealth grows, they discard spiritual and creative values. Their greed leads to distrust and dishonesty, and eventually the society crumbles.
With regard to the initiative – the forces of greed certainly play a role. On the one hand there are those who have money, who have gained the best of the economy, and on the other, those who do not have money but have superior political strength, those who desire more wealth for themselves by taking it from others. The initiative, I think, is a form of legitimized theft.
It will be interesting to see how this initiative plays itself out.
YMCA Building and Conservation Futures Taxes
The Spokane City Council has finally decided to try to use Spokane County Conservation Futures Taxes for the payment of the loan it took out to buy the YMCA building on the Spokane River. Council members and two Spokane County Commissioners say the money is being used to create open space on the river. That is an excuse. The money is to be used to pay a loan the city made to itself from funds it held in an account which has nothing to do with parks and recreation funding.
What we witness here is the misuse, the illegal use, of tax revenues for an impermissible purpose. The city and the county are merely raiding the Conservation Futures Tax account to pay off a loan the city of Spokane has incurred and which it does not want to pay.
Time for Steve Tucker and Jim Emacio to Go
It is time to replace Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney Steve Tucker and his Chief Civil Deputy, James Emacio. Mr. Tucker is in charge of the entire office of prosecuting attorney but he defers completely to Mr. Emacio regarding the civil side of the office. We now know there are grave problems in the Office of the Spokane County Prosecuting Attorney. Here is a listing of a few of these problems:
Morning Star Boys Ranch – Fraudulent Claims? Mr. Tucker has been asked to seek a special inquiry judge to look into whether there is not a conspiracy to defraud Morning Star Boys Ranch with false sex abuse claims. See this letter to Mr. Tucker.
River Park Square. River Park Square has been a critical point in the history of the city and county of Spokane. Mr. Tucker was asked to take action, to call for a special inquiry judge, to cause a grand jury to be empaneled, to explore whether the state RICO act had been violated, was implicated. He failed to take action. He failed to even really consider taking action. See this Brief Summary of River Park Square dated May 14, 2007.
The Yates Case – for years we had a serial killer of young women in our midst. Mr. Tucker avoided the serious issue of the death penalty in the matter, passing it on to others.
The Death of Jo Ellen Savage. Without a doubt there were strong indications that a crime had been committed regarding the tragic death of Jo Ellen Savage at the River Park Square Parking Garage. The facts were clear that the spandrels did not act as safety barriers, that they were defective, that they had failed in the past, that the owners knew of the failures, that the owners had been advised by engineers that the spandrels were a danger, and it was apparent that the spandrel which failed was improperly designed or manufactured. Mr. Tucker was asked to take action. He did not. Now he is being asked again. He will not act. See materials under the heading Jo Ellen Savage Death at River Park Square at this link.
Prosecution of Eileen Jensen, Yet No Prosecution of RPS Garage Owners. See this letter regarding the disconnect of prosecutorial morality. Letter to S. Tucker of February 9, 2009.
Mortgage Skimming and Fraud. Over the past several years there has been a good deal of mortgage fraud taking place in Spokane County. Mr. Tucker has turned a blind eye to the problem and has relied on the United States Attorney to take action.
Conservation Futures Taxes and the Downtown YMCA. The law of the state of Washington does not allow precious conservation futures tax revenues to be used for the purchase of developed property which is to be torn down. Yet, Mr. Tucker and Mr. Emacio think it does. When they should be enforcing the law and protecting tax resources and ensuring they are used for proper purposes, they wish to bend the law and help who?– a politically correct faction in Spokane which thinks tax revenue can be spent for any “Government Party” purpose? Just how much political correctness, political faddishness, can our community sustain? See the materials at this link. Mr. Emacio is at the heart of this Machiavellian power grab.
The Spokane Airways Case – a great deal of trouble is brewing regarding the Spokane Airport Board, a joint venture of the County of Spokane and the City of Spokane. Spokane Airways has filed a claim with the County for the ill treatment it has received and which it is enduring. At the center of the complaint is a host of attorney conflicts of interest which have cost the city and the county hundreds of thousands of dollars – Mr. Emacio is in the center of this dust-up. See the Claim Filed by Spokane Airways dated January 11, 2010.
The Orville Moe Raceway – this property never should have been purchased. It is an environmental hazard, the business the county seeks to be in with regard to it is simply not the sort of business a public entity should be involved in, it is a vanity project on the part of county commissioners drunk with the power to spend public money, and it is a project Mr. Tucker and Mr. Emacio have no business providing legal services for – it is way out of their league. Way out of their realm of expertise. You may ask, why is the county on the hook for debts the previous operator ran up? That’s bad legal work folks.
Land acquisitions in the West Plains Area. What is this all about? As best one can tell, the land acquisition and new railroad is a highly expensive open space which will be kept out of the hands of private capital. But, I forgot, it looks as though the railroad line is being used as a storage yard for various railroad cars which are not in use – many are tankers (one wonders whether they are filled with something?). Senseless, all unless of course one thinks that the legal leadership of the county should be actively involved in helping the county take more land out of the hands of private property owners. The public as entrepreneur? Heaven help us all!
Highway 195: An update and thoughts about government
I drive south on Highway 195 most every day. As I pass the its intersection at the Cheney-Spokane Road I notice that more and more tributes and remembrances are being placed at the intersection where a 16 year old girl was killed in an auto accident several months ago. Every time I pass by I think how sad and how senseless her death was. It probably would not have happened had government been more wise about controlling traffic at the intersection. It probably would not have happened had government been more cautious. It probably would not have happened if one or two people in government stood up and said something, said what needed to be done to better to protect people driving vehicles at the intersection.
The intersection controls, the way the intersection was managed, was a product of the thinking of people who act as members of groups within government. Had one or more members of the groups expressed concern and had stood up for the concern expressed, the young lady would probably be alive today.
Yesterday, for the very first time in the years I have travelled through the intersection I saw a police officer checking the speed of the northbound traffic with a radar gun. That’s something I thought. But why is the speed limit 55 mph at the intersection? Why does government require that speed when it would be more reasonable for all concerned to reduce it to protect all the people who use the intersection? Why?
What motivates people who are making the decisions? I suspect it is the notion of the group, the “we”, the collective mind, over the notion of the individual mind, over the notion of elemental good sense. It is as if the we has a right to be unreasonable. It is the notion that the we has a right to act such that some affected by the decision are to unnecessarily suffer. It is as if there is a sort of ongoing government condemnation, a taking, which operates within the force of the government which is controlled by a certain government party mindset. And then I ask, who is this government party? Is there something the people who are in the groups who control the government have in common with one another? I suspect one common element is that these people do not speak for themselves very often and pretty much yield to the mindset of the group when they do – they are not courageous.
What are we becoming?
What are we becoming? Today, there is this news of the death of Salvation Army worker, Major Philip Wise, in front of his three small children? The killer may very well be a very bad man. But, it seems there are lot of bad men these days. More than I remember. I think something else is happening. Something is happening here at home, in our cities and towns, in our neighborhoods. Perhaps, before we think we can help others with our “guns and drones” and “our ideals” it may be a good idea to see how we can help ourselves.
Health Insurance and the American Character
The news of the passage of the health care insurance legislation is disturbing. How good a thing is it if the Senators who voted for it did so because of the things they were able to get the government, our government, to give to their constituents? The Senators votes were for sale and the votes were sold. Once again I am impressed by the lack of integrity, honesty and character of political leaders in the United States. It is business as usual, government benefits for sale. Our system is not based upon reason. It is not based upon what is right and what is wrong. It is based on power and how much a person will sell his power for. We are a culture based upon the ethic that the “end justifies the means.” We simply do not know any different these days. Our world is a judgment of power, not a judgment of justice or morality, or right and wrong.
Abortion and Viagra
Senator Boxer (D CA) said this a day or so ago: “Why are women being singled out here? It’s so unfair,” Boxer said on the Senate floor Tuesday. “We don’t tell men that if they want to … buy insurance coverage through their pharmaceutical plan for Viagra that they can’t do it.”
Quite unbeleivable. And, terribly sad. What are we becoming?
A Gross Waste of Public Funds: YMCA Illegality
Ponder this. Certain county and city elected officials want to use $4.3 million of ConservationFutures Tax revenues for the purchase of the Downtown YMCA. The YMCA is to be torn down. It will cost $850,000 to tear it down. The YMCA and the demolition money will go away, into the ether.
Along the south bank of the Spokane River these officials are going to throw away the value of the building and the cost of demolition. The money for this will simply vanish. It will be the same as these officials going to the public’s bank and withdrawing $4.3 so that they can burn each dollar bill as a sort of celebration of Riverfront Park.
There something wrong with this, really wrong! Public officials cannot engage in a “gross waste of public funds.” And, that’s what this is a gross, very gross, waste of public funds.
And, it gets worse. The officials will be engaging in an act of malfeasance. They might even be personally liable.
The YMCA — Waste of Public Funds, Malfeasance
The Spokane County assessor in 2009 assessed the YMCA property at $5,230,000. Of that $1,246,000 represented land, the remaining amount represented improvements of $3,984,000 — land was 24% of the value. Of the $5,300,000 YMCA purchase price, about 76% represents improvements or $4,028,000.
Our elected officials are going to tear down the improvements, demolish them. To do so, they will have to spend another $850,000. In the end, the building will be demolished and trucked away. In terms of dollars, $4,878,000 vanish. The value destroyed will not increase the value of the land The value of $1,246,000 will be a constant. So, in the end, our elected officials will have spent $6,150,000 to gain an asset worth $1,246,000.
There is something very wrong here.
It is wrong to use Conservation Futures Tax revenues for the purchase of this particular property. The laws simply do not allow it. But there is something worse, terribly worse, – certain of our elected officials are intent on simply throwing away some $4,878,000. Is it reasonable to think they can do this?
Does anyone think that the members of the Spokane City council could pass a law that said they could stand on the banks of the Spokane River and, one by one, burn 4,878,000 dollar bills obtained from the public treasury in celebration of a public display of affection for Riverfront Park?
Cant: Experiencing the Term
As I watch the Spokane City Council meeting tonight the word “cant” comes to mind. There seems to be a language used by our leaders. One hears words like partnering, collaborative, public private partnership, moving forward and so on. I bristle. I suppose I am experiencing the insincerity of cant.
Some definitions of the word cant – insincere, esp. conventional expressions of enthusiasm for high ideals, goodness, or piety; the phraseology peculiar to a particular class, party, profession, etc.: the cant of the fashion industry.