Governor Gregoire is Dissatisfied.

Thars trouble a-brewin' with hyper taxation in Washington State

"[Voters are] no more frustrated than I am," Gregoire said. Democrat Gregoire claims to be unhappy with the results of overthrowing democracy in Washington State. Her approval rating is at 31%, according to Survey USA.

As recently as January, Gregoire assured the citizens that there would be no tax increases. Nobody likes a fibber.


The Democratic Party controlled legislature is fairing even worse at 20% approval, according to Survey USA. Small wonder. This legislature decided to kowtow to the SEIU union of government workers and give them a raise in the current recession. Now a Washington State employee makes about $21,000 more per year than a comparable private sector employee.

See KING-Five for more.

$680 milion more

The State House enacted $680 million in new taxes today.

In a move which can only cripple the state economy, the Democrat controlled legislature enacted a 4.8% overall increase in tax. If Governor Gregoire gets her way, the state take of the sales tax will increase to 6.8% of all retail sales in the state. The overall authorization will exceed 10.5% in some counties.

''We're all here to make a courageous decision in a balanced way, and that's what this bill does,'' said Rep. Marko Liias, D-Mukilteo. The Democrats call pandering to the Service Employees International Union bosses courageous. Its clear the Democrats expect the SEIU to support Democrat candidates with money and canvassing.

One Democrat who voted against the arrogance of his party sided with the Republican minority. “I promised the people I would not [vote for] increase taxes, and I stood by my promise,” said Tim Probst, D-Clark County said. Probst has supported business friendly legislation n the past. He may be the only Democrat in Olympia who understands government does not create wealth, it only taxes it.

Most Democrats seem to think a crushing tax burden will create wealth. "Democratic" Party rationale is presented here.

“The power to tax is the power to destroy, and these tax increases are going to destroy jobs, small businesses and the future economic prosperity of our state,” said Hinkle, R-Cle Elum. “People want to work – they want a job. Since when did the equation for job creation in our state begin and end with the expansion of government?

~~~~~~~~

I960, which used to protect us against unjustifiable tax increases, was suspended recently. Apparently the Democrats had to commit fraud in order to enact the suspension. A number of Democrats cast votes in place of their absent colleagues. The Evergreen Freedom Foundation broke the story.

Not only do the Democrats crash the state economy, they brag about it, and they did it illegally and screwed up by blabbling. Amazing! And criminal.

Freedom & democracy from beyond!

Predatory Indifference

The notice said,

ESSB 5543, as amended by the House Committee on Environmental Health, titled AN ACT Relating to mercury reduction, has been passed by the House of Representatives. The Senate has concurred in the House of Representatives amendments for ESSB 5543, and has passed the bill final passage.

The Governoire Gregoire will sign this new tax soon.

This one is irksome. Now that the US Congress has outlawed sale of incandescent lights, people are forced to switch to CFLs. The Washington State Legislature, sensing a chance to draw blood, is going to tax CFLs because they contain tiny amounts of mercury. In fact, the Legislature is merely greedy.

The tax is "only" about $1,000,000 per year statewide. But given the people have no real choice but to buy fluorescent lights, this is merely a new tax masquerading as environmental concern. Its just the government showing a predatory indifference to the people.

Stop the massive tax hikes!

The politicians in Olympia show huge indifference to the state. They are cranking up tax rates, seeking to feed on the lifeblood of the people. Send the State government officials an email about your concerns. May I suggest something like the following text.

As a Washington taxpayer and your constituent, I want you to know that I oppose extending the state sales tax to candy, a tax on bottled water, and boosting taxes and fees on tobacco products. These are clear violation of the will of the people.

I urge you to cut wasteful and unnecessary spending to eliminate the $2.6 billion budget shortfall.

On your watch Washington State is facing one of the toughest economies in decades. You should work to relieve the financial burden on cash-strapped families and pursue policies that encourage, rather than discourage, economic activity -- like lower sales taxes.

In addition, while backers of the tobacco tax hike say it will raise as much as $88 million annually, history has shown that raising excise tax rates does not produce projected revenue. Of the 57 excise tax increases states enacted between 2003 and 2007, only 16 met or exceeded revenue targets. Know your history.

When tobacco tax revenue fails to materialize, you will raise other taxes to make up the "shortfall."

Rather than raising any taxes -- Cut wasteful spending to pay only for vital priorities.

The "Governoire" and Legislative contacts can be found on the right.

Much of the material for this post came from
http://councilfor.cagw.org/site/Advocacy?pagename=homepage&id=621.

State Income Tax (for all, eventually)

Lynn Harsh sent this in an email.

"If legislative leaders get their way, we will have a whopping new income tax next year and a big new bureaucracy to implement it.

At about noon today (Thursday), we learned that the Senate Ways and Means Committee will hold a hearing on a tax proposal at 4:30 p.m. (today). For the second time this week, the contents of a proposed tax bill were not available to the public in advance. Nonetheless, Amber Gunn will do her best to testify on behalf of taxpayers.

The intent of the bill was made clear in a blog by Senator Lisa Brown, its architect. She wants to pass a “temporary” three-tenths-of-a-cent sales tax increase to go into effect immediately. Coupled with her proposal is a referendum to the people, giving them the opportunity in November to repeal that three-tenths-of-a-cent increase and an additional half-cent off the state sales tax in exchange for a high earners’ 4.5 % income tax.

They are using sneaky, class warfare strategy to get the camel’s nose under the tent. Brown and her liberal colleagues have long wanted an income tax, and this is the way she intends to implement it. Don’t think for a minute the tax would be relegated only to “high earners.” In a few years, it would encompass most of us.

Perhaps the most crass part is Brown’s assertion that she wants to “let the voters decide.” That’s hard to swallow considering the public had less than five hours notice to testify on a bill whose contents were not publicly disclosed. Add to that the eight times before voters have said “no” to an income tax.

So what can you do? First, please communicate your thoughts about this issue to your elected representatives. I’d love to hear that their phone lines were swamped and their emails flooded."

Up to the minute reporting on this legislative hustle is available at the Evergreen Freedom Foundation.

Contact the governor and the legislature.
Governor Christine Gregoire
Find your legislator

And don't forget to vote the rascals out.

a little tax protest

Washington State Governoire Christine Gregoire overthrew the people's initiative 960 so her party can raise state taxes. The "Democratic" Party has never liked the democratic process when it gets in the way of them raising taxes.

Time Eyman appeared at the ceremonial signing so he could present his opposition to the dismantling of democracy and the resulting tax increase. He can be excused for being a little juvenile. I suspect he wanted to vomit.

Tim Eyman said, "[I]t was just my way to peacefully protest an enormous injustice. It also gave me an opportunity to counter Gregoire's statements and speak out. As you can imagine, feedback almost perfectly matches KING 5's polling results -- the 24% who think the Democrats were right to suspend I-960 are outraged by my protest, the 68% who were against the Democrats' suspension of I-960 are supportive or OK with my protest, but most people rightly don't care one way or the other. After all, my disrespect for the Governor won't cost taxpayers anything -- whereas Gregoire's disrespect for the voters by overturning voter-approved I-960 will cost taxpayers billions of dollars in higher taxes."

The smiling Governor Christine Gregoire was apparently unaware of the gesture Eyman was making behind her back.

Well, at least we still have free speech in Washington State. Word is, the "Democratic" Party is working on ways to tax that too.