Washington state big-government advocates have promoted a state income tax for many years. This activism has recently increased.
According to a statement by Washington State Rep. Jay Rodne, “A bill imposing a state income tax has already been drafted by Democrats in Olympia, and they are prepared to file it after the November elections, depending on the outcome.”
This is no surprise, as the State Democratic platform says as much (see page 13).
As reported in Shift: In 2010, voters defeated I-1098—a latest statewide initiative that would have implemented a state income tax—by a 28% margin. Unfortunately, a 64-36% vote against a state income tax has not been enough to fend off Democrats’ insatiable desire for higher taxes.
Because of this, many right-of-center candidates are increasingly having a ‘no state income tax’ message be prominent in their outreach, as shown by local 49th state senate candidate Lewis Gerhardt on his signage.
As Washington State citizens, we’re at a serious crossroads where we can hopefully slow, then stop the march of ever-increasing big government. Big, meaning increasingly corrupt, incompetent, and bloated government. An important front on this war is to increasingly starve the government beast of money–and therefore again stopping the state income tax.
Local candidate’s point of view on big government and big taxes is demonstrated in the Political Candidate Evaluation Matrix, available at ClarkCounty.info. The first two evaluation criteria are on these topics (see diagram to right).
For full information about the Political Candidate Evaluation Matrix, watch the five-minute training video.
History teaches us that allowing government to have more money doesn’t solve the financial problems of the community, state or country, it exacerbates them. The nature of government is to grow and expand. Fiscally responsible citizens want the government to live within its means, and we elect politicians to make difficult decisions of how to best steward the public treasury for the good of the electorate. Raising taxes is a cop-out, and ducks the difficult decision. Giving the government more money just encourages them to find new ways to spend it. California took this route, imposing ruinous income and sales taxes on its citizens. California today has a public debt larger than many nations, and is facing bankruptcy. Don’t let Washington follow the path of California. Elect leaders who will stand against a state income tax.