Get ready for a historic political battle over a Washington state income tax. As if contentious 2010 weren’t already headed for the political record books, along comes Bill Gates Sr. as the spokesman for a group proposing yet another new tax.
On April 21, flanked by a group of “liberal activists” (so described by Associated Press writer Curt Woodward), Gates kicked off the campaign for Initiative 1077, which, if approved, will implement an income tax for the first time in our state’s history.
I-1077 is a Trojan Horse, wheeled onto the scene with a misleading exterior. It places up to a 9 percent graduated income tax on individual income above $200,000 per year and above $400,000 for couples, while reducing by 20 percent the small state portion of property taxes. It reduces or eliminates the Business and Occupation Tax for some businesses. The reductions, worthy but easily reversed later, are insignificant when compared with the monumental overturning of a cornerstone of economic freedom: Washington is one of just seven states lacking an income tax.
Backers evidently believe we are gullible enough to believe this tax on “the rich” won’t be extended to lower incomes. I-1077 proponents claim they have no intention of doing so, and Gates said he would be “astonished” if lawmakers expanded the scope of the tax. They evidently hope we’re clueless that those same “rich” people generate jobs and support our struggling Vancouver Symphony.
I am astonished that Gates, whose family has benefited handsomely from economic freedom, is so eager to deprive fellow citizens of their modest earnings.
Supporters of I-1077 estimate their measure will transfer another $1 billion a year from the private sector to government coffers, on top of the $800 million sucked up by the Legislature’s recent tax increase. Meanwhile, Congress just enacted tax increases on investment income to pay for the health care bill, and a sweeping federal Value Added Tax is being studied by a presidential commission.
These seemingly disconnected efforts are well coordinated. As reported in “Who is Behind I-1077” by liberal historian Trevor Griffey (http:www.olympianews.org, April 22), Bill Gates is a persuasive spokesman, but “the people who actually decided to launch the initiative … have so far avoided the spotlight.” Griffey quotes the liberal campaign consultant Sandeep Kaushik who handled his press inquiries for I-1077 as pinpointing among other supporters the seemingly omnipresent Service Employees International Union. SEIU and other labor organizations have joined with “a group of Seattle liberal community leaders” in spearheading I-1077.
Gov. Gregoire, who is coy about whether she’ll vote for the initiative, is fooling no one who paid attention during her 2008 campaign. In a 2008 interview with the Spokesman-Review, Gregoire famously stated about a state income tax, “Eventually, we’re going to get there.” Gregoire knows that achieving this liberal Holy Grail is not as simple as just passing I-1077. The state constitution prohibits taxing property in unequal ways, and from 1932 to 1951, our state Supreme Court ruled that graduated personal and corporate income tax proposals violated this clause of the constitution. But more than 50 years later, no one knows how the court will rule.
So this year, the pro-tax coalition has nothing to lose and much to gain by raising the issue. Placing I-1077 on the ballot will inspire their deflated progressive supporters.
We should not delude ourselves that grandfatherly Bill Gates Sr. is leading the charge for a state income tax. We’re facing a concerted national and even international labor effort to transform our economic system.
Time for a change
This column concludes my series of guest opinion columns for The Columbian for 2010. The sole reason for this self-imposed sabbatical is the lure of spending more time on the campaign trail on behalf of good candidates for public office, and the necessity of devoting more time to professional and charitable activities.
Ann Donnelly, a Vancouver businesswoman, is a former chair of the Clark County Republican Party. E-mail: adonnelly7@comcast.net.
