I am fundamentally in favor of overturning Washington’s rigged, regressive, racialized tax code, which burdens workers and the poor with sales and property tax. We’re home to some of the richest people in the whole world, and it’s disturbing to me that politicians still lack the political will to make them pay their fair share in income, capital gains and wealth taxes.
I volunteered for the 2010 initiative that almost brought us an income tax. Politicians often cite its loss as proof that Washingtonian’s don’t support taxing the rich. But the campaign messaging was overly technocratic, and the billionaire-backed opposition campaign took advantage of that weakness. Later polls have shown voters support tax reform when reminded that the system is rigged to favor the rich and when the revenue is tied to social supports that benefit everyday people.
Let’s pay for a Green New Deal by taxing corporate polluters rather than energy consumers. Let’s pay for free college by taxing the gains and wealth of massive knowledge-based corporations like Amazon, Microsoft and Boeing. Let’s pay for housing by going after the big real estate speculators and private equity firms buying up all our single family homes, trailer parks and apartment buildings. Let’s lower inequality and limit wealth hoarding. Let’s transform Washington together.
If politicians won’t change their tone or fight for progressive taxation legislation, then I support building the working class will to win using the initiative process. We almost won in 2010 and we can win now if we bring workers along with us. If the billionaire-backed “Let’s Go Washington” initiatives can get signatures through huge spending, deceit and manipulation, then we certainly should be able to with a transformative message, massively mobilized people power and truth.
To that end, I am actively campaigning against the rollback of the capital gains and climate tax. I believe we need more solutions to tax income and wealth, not less, and I’m disappointed in the legislature’s handling of all six right-wing, astroturf “Let’s Go Washington” initiatives. This is particularly true for the income tax ban. They should have pushed it to voters to decide, then spent all year campaigning against it, rather than cynically passing it and campaigning to keep their own jobs.
Everything I’m discussing here is bold, everything is expensive, and none of it is a silver bullet. On top of taxing the rich, we also need innovative solutions on funding and revenue. One thing I fully support is building a public banking system. This could be used to support innovative social housing solutions, redevelopment of single-family homes to rent stabilized duplexes and triplexes, and the massive investment necessary to build new infrastructure. Public bank investment can be conditional on union jobs, Project Labor Agreements and more, if we develop the political will. Of course, all of this requires politicians willing to fight like hell for a future that works for all.
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