Recent Stories with tag I-1077

Bill Gates, Sr.

Word "leaked" out last night that an income tax initiative could join the marijuana legalization initiative already in progress. Joel Connelly posted the news to Strange Bedfellows, describing I-1077 as a "sweeping plan to cut the state property tax, eliminate the Business and Occupation Tax for small businesses and create an income tax on high income couples."

How times have changed--Connelly also points out that Republican governor Dan Evans tried twice to bring an income tax to Washington in the early '70s. Now, a Democratic governor and legislature won't touch the idea. Bill Gates, Sr., is the figurehead for the initiative; Gates has been unusually willing to argue for higher taxes on the wealthy, so he has probably already lost all the country club friends he's going to.

I-1077 is (like State Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown's earlier, unsupported proposal) a high-earner's tax, applying first a five percent tax to income earned over $200,000 for individuals, or $400,000 for couples. A second bracket of $500,000/$1 million would apply a $15,000/$30,000-plus-nine-percent tax (again, on income earned above that amount). For some reason, Canadian Business Online has the most details on the initiative's actual brackets.

Total revenue could be $1 billion. In return, the Seattle Times says, the initiative "would cut the state property tax by 20 percent" and "end the business-and-occupation tax for small businesses."

The success of the initiative is dependent on first gaining 240,000 signatures between now and July, so that it makes the ballot; then winning in November, and then not being ruled unconstitutional, thanks to a 1933 Washington Supreme Court ruling that interpreted income as a form of property. Under the state constitution, "property taxes must be uniform on every class of property and can't exceed 1 percent of the value of property" (the Seattle Times, again).