Washington state income tax battle

Bob Ferguson, Washington State's Attorney General,  took an oath to uphold Washington state’s constitution and laws, not advance a radical political agenda. But you’d never know it judging by his refusal to accept a court ruling declaring unconstitutional the legislature’s attempt to illegally tax income from capital gains.

On Nov. 3, with the Washington State Supreme Court already scheduled to hear oral arguments in the case on Jan. 26, Ferguson filed a motion to stay a ruling issued last April by Douglas County Superior Court Judge Brian Huber invalidating the new tax.

Calling Huber’s decision "incorrect" and "at the very least debatable," Ferguson argued |"(I)t would be profoundly irresponsible for the Department [of Revenue] to fail to prepare to collect the tax in April 2023 as directed by statute."

Washington state law is unequivocal. Statutes declared unconstitutional are deemed void from the outset. They have no legal effect whatsoever and the law treats them as if they never existed.

But the elected attorney general wants the state to collect the tax from people now and decide whether it’s legal later.

On Wednesday, the Freedom Foundation’s legal team filed a brief in opposition to Ferguson’s high-handed actions.

During the 2021 session, the Legislature passed — and Gov. Jay Inslee quickly signed into law — a measure intended to punish the state’s high earners by imposing a 7 percent tax on income from certain capital gains above $250,000 a year, such as profits from stocks or business sales.

The Washington State Constitution, however, clearly states — and nearly 100 years of legal precedent supports — that such taxes must be applied uniformly and cannot exceed 1 percent without voter approval.

Backers of the tax describe it as an excise tax, but previous court decisions have consistently regarded income as property — which must be taxed at the same rate for everyone.

The Freedom Foundation, working with the Seattle law firm of Lane Powell, PC, immediately filed suit to kill the new tax, and Huber last spring sided with the organization. He wrote:

"As a tax on the receipt of income, ESSB 5096 is also properly characterized as a tax on property pursuant to that same case law. This court concludes that ESSB 5096 violates the uniformity and limitation requirements of article VII, sections 1 and 2 of the Washington State Constitution. It violates the uniformity requirement by imposing a 7 percent tax on an individual’s long-term capital gains exceeding $250,000 but imposing zero tax on capital gains below that $250,000 threshold. It violates the limitation requirement because the 7 percent tax exceeds the 1 percent maximum annual property tax rate of 1 percent."

As usual, Ferguson is playing with house money. It costs him nothing but your tax dollars to fight the Washington constitution and the consistently expressed will of the people he’s supposed to represent. Meanwhile, anyone who opposes his agenda must rely on their own resources.

Freedom Foundation Donations

Gun Control Northwest

Nothing new in Washington State, but in Oregon....

In the blue state of Oregon, voters were presented with Measure 114, the 12-page Changes to Firearm Ownership and Purchase Requirements Initiative, described by the NRA as "the nation’s most extreme gun control Initiative."

Among other things, it requires a law enforcement-issued “permit to purchase” to buy or transfer a firearm, requires law enforcement to maintain a registry of gun owners’ personal information (gathered from permit applications), and subjects legitimate gun owners to extra fees to exercise their rights. It also unconstitutionally bans the use, possession, manufacturing, and transfer of magazines with a capacity of more than ten rounds.  

This extreme law was supported by wealthy gun control groups Giffords, Bloomberg’s Everytown, and the Oregon Alliance for Gun Safety. Law enforcement associations, state gun groups.  The National Rifle Association opposed the measure.   

There was a huge funding disparity in the campaign contributions reported in relation to the measure, with $2,930,049.57 in support, and $173,205.26 against.

Large donations from single individuals made up most of the pro-Measure 114 funding, with Connie Ballmer, the wife of Steve Ballmer, billionaire and former Microsoft CEO, being the top donor with a contribution of $750,000, followed by Nicolas Hanauer ($250,000), and Bloomberg’s Everytown PAC donating an additional $155,000.

Even with the campaign spending so massively weighted in favor of the proponents, on election day the measure barely squeaked by, with current results showing just over 50% of voters favored the law.

Late voter registration in WA state

Do you still need to register?

 

You can visit your county elections office until 8 p.m. tonight to register and vote.

 

County elections office contact info: https://www.sos.wa.gov/elections/auditors.aspx

When you vote, remember -- Democracy without personal liberty is pointless.

Washington - vote

The Democrats have been drunk with power, binging on a wild party of spending on themselves, and increasing the burden of taxes on us.  They knowingly indulged themselves with socialist experiments and broken concepts like 'social justice' and 'racial equity (not racial equality)'.   They forgot what is on the line and the human need of right now.

-- Violent crime increase in Washington communities [PostMillenial].
-- Increasing homelessness [Washington State Wire].
–- Skyrocketing prices of everyday necessities like gasoline & food.
–- The American Dream for our children.

Stop the madness now.  Get your ballot marked and in the mail.  Vote to reduce taxation.  Vote to remove the irresponsible Democrats from government.

Termination of COVID emergency proclamations

Governor Inslee issued these rescissions just in time for the elections.  The terminations are effective October 31, 2022 at 11:59 PM.

These orders include the following gubernatorial Proclamations:

20-05.1: Coronavirus Rescission
20-09.5: COVID-19 K-12 Schools Rescission
20-12.6: HigherEd and Vaccine Requirement Rescission
20-25.20: COVID-19 Washington Ready Rescission
20-43.11: COVID-19 OFM Leave Pay Rescission
20-64.6: COVID-19 PRA Contact Tracing Rescission
20-78.1: COVID-19 Stability in Local Health Jurisdictions escission
20-83.3: COVID-19 Restrictions on Travelers Rescission
21-08.2: COVID-19 Safe Workers Rescission
21-14.6: COVID Vaccination Requirement Rescission
21-05.2: Children’s Mental Health Crisis Rescission

Official Actions

Rep. Kim Schrier -- not a police supporter

Rep. Kim Schrier (WA-8) presents herself as a law enforcement supporter.  In her campaign ads she says she has never voted to defund the police.  Does her voting record support her claim?

1. Kim Schrier voted with the Defund the Police movement last year.  She cast her vote for H.R.1280, the "George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2021" (House Clerk).

• The act lowers the criminal intent standard (from willful to knowing or reckless) to convict a law enforcement officer for misconduct in a federal prosecution
• limits qualified immunity as a defense to liability in a private civil action against a law enforcement officer
• grants administrative subpoena power to the Department of Justice (DOJ) in pattern-or-practice investigations
  

2. Kim Schrier voted to cut police funding by $22.2 million through HR 7617 (A DOD bill, with amendments added) (House Clerk).  7617 added restrictions to use of force in policing.  (It also renamed federal property that had been named after enemies of the federal government.)

To correct the phrase Kim Schrier uses in her ad, Let me be clear, Kim Schrier supported defunding the police.  

~~~~~~~~

H.R.1280 roll call
H.R.1280 text

&

HR 7617 roll call
HR 7617 text see Section 8132 of HR 7617 which added restrictions to use of force in policing.

8th Congressional district Congressional seat

Matt Larkin, the Republican candidate for Congress (WA - 8th district), opposes that idea that pregnant women have unlimited right to abortion on demand.  Larkin says he values human life

The Kim Schrier (WA - 8) congressional campaign is advertising that Matt Larkin would specifically deny access to abortion services to Spanish speakers.  She pretends Spanish speakers have special need to get abortions.  Her ad is in Spanish. 

In response to Kim Schrier,

Ella es racista al sugerir que las mujeres que habla Español tienen especial necesidad de acceder al aborto.

Vota por Larkin.

Framing Republicans in King County

In an attempt to create confusion and distrust in local elections, some lightweight political terrorist is trying to frame Republicans for interference with voting.

The alleged interference is in the form of signs telling voters that balloting ballot drop stations are "under surveillance."  The sign has a scannable QR link to the King County Republicans website.

The presence of the link should dissuade anyone from believing the Republicans are behind this.  Why would the culprit be so bold?  Anyway, when you go to the website, there is only the standard party organization stuff and nothing about balloting control.  Local media reporting the story put their bias on display by assuming the Republicans actually are behind this.

It's an obvious false flag operation.  You must wonder if anyone will fall for it.

In fact, this might be a crime.  Because there is actual voter intimidation going on, whoever posted the signs may face criminal prosecution.  But you can be sure the Republican Party had nothing to do with it.

King County Elections asked the Sheriff to investigate.  

(Chronical)

State of the income tax challenge

Last year, the State Legislature enacted a 7% tax on gains from the sale of stocks, bonds, businesses and other investments, if the net income  exceeded $250,000.  The Legislature, and present State Attorney General Bob Ferguson, claim that makes the tax  a sales tax.

Opponents of the new tax say a capital gains tax is an income tax.  The case is being handled by former State Attorney General Rob McKenna.

In march, the Douglas County Superior Court struck down the new tax.

The state appealed the decision. On Wednesday, the State Supreme Court agreed to hear the case directly, bypassing the State Appeals Court system.  The action is titled  Quinn v. State of Washington.

The 14th Amendment of the state's constitution states all taxes in the state must be "uniform upon the same class of property." Property is defined as "everything, whether tangible or intangible, subject to ownership."

(Freedom Foundation)

Gun Control - The Ten Round Limit & Supreme Court Rulings.

In a case that may have bearing on on Washington state citizens (see WA Senate Bill 5078), the Supreme Court of the United States issued orders in two other cases. ANJRPC v. Bruck and Duncan v. Bonta, challenge New Jersey and California laws that ban magazines capable of holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition.  The National Rifle Association's Institute for Legislative Action brought both actions.

The Third and Ninth Circuits, over dissents, had upheld the bans by balancing the state governments’ safety interests with the restriction on the right to keep and bear arms. Then both cases were appealed to the Supreme Court. 

On June 30th, SCOTUS vacated and remanded both cases back to the lower courts to rehear them and to apply the text-and-history test that it adopted in Bruen—not the interest-balancing tests that the courts applied previously. This is a good result that effectively gives us a second and better shot at winning the cases.  (SCOTUS summary disposition - pdf)