Dems Gone Wild
It appears the Democratic-controlled Washington legislature just can't get enough new or raised taxes. Even the Seattle Times, certainly not a conservative paper, expressed concerns about their insane new tax-and-spend policies and laws.
As they used to say on the old Ronco ads, "But wait! There's more!". Waiting for Gov. Christine("Yes, I promised no tax increases. So I lied. Sue me.") Gregoire's signature (and she has indicated she will sign it) is a bill that raise state emissions standards to those of California even though, scientifically, it will do very little to improve air quality and cost the average car buyer $2000-3000 more for a new car. The next time St. Helens burps there go all the air quality gains. An amendment to this bill also makes it illegal to purchase automobiles in Idaho - although I'm not sure about other states. Hey, they don't want you to upset their tax racketeering, do they?
And the new 9.5 cent gas tax? Sure, the roads need work. However, road construction in Washington is so fraught with environmental tangles, lack of competitive bids, and taxes that it costs tens of millions per mile to add a lane to a major road. I also seem to recall that voter's killed off similar initiatives in the past. So, hey, let's do what we want anyway and screw the voter - they can't be trusted to make important decisions.
On that note, it's interesting how the legislature decided I-601, which required a supermajority vote for tax increases, was inconvenient and squashed it. Again, who gives a shit about the will of the people? We got taxes to raise!
So the major tax increases will be on liquor and tobacco. A buddy of mine who works for the state LCB says that the price of a fifth of spirits will rise about $2. The price of cigarettes will rise by about $0.80. Funny thing about Dems and "sin taxes" - don't they know that the majority of drinkers and smokers are in the lower or lower-middle classes?
As to the alcohol prices, I've made it a "thing" of mine to compare prices on things whenever I travel. Here's the prices of a 1.75 liter bottle of Bacardi light rum.
Washington (before the new tax): $27.95 (state controlled)
Florida 16.95 (Costco)
California 14.99 (Safeway)
Nevada 16.49 (private store)
So what's going to happen? A lot of folks will start buying these things on-line or over the state border. Hey, why not? They've made it worth their while! And then what? Is the state going to put border guards up?
The Seattle Times thinks that these new taxes will implode the economy and I tend to agree.
I have lived for significant amounts of time in Florida, Georgia, Texas, California, Arkansas, Connecticut, Alabama, and New York. Never in my life have I seen a state government so utterly distainful of the wishes of the population and so willing to toss aside or challenge voter inititatives.
2 comments:
I wish I could have gone, too.
In theory, I agree that a gas tax is the most equitable way to pay for roads. But that tax must be spent responsibly and the reason why the voters killed this off in the past was that the state could not demonstrate that they could actually do the work in a cost-effective manner.
Wake up, Suze! The reason that the voters have voted down a gas tax in the past is that they don't trust the government. Period. It's not that they're uninformed voters or kneejerk anti-tax. By that line of reasoning few local school or fire issues would pass and they virtually all pass.
While you're touting the oh-so-on-budget road building process, go to the State DOT and get a cost-per-mile figure for state highways. Then tell me about the efficient state process.
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