Letters to the editor for April 6
Put your phone down and look around
Saturday, March 23, was a glorious day on Olympia’s boardwalk. The temperature was 60 degrees and there was a light breeze blowing. The myriad boats were gently bobbing and the water was beautiful.
Crowds of people of all ages wandered back and forth and I would guess an excess of 95 percent of them had their heads buried in their smartphones. I literally only saw one other person without a phone.
People, get your heads out of your ... phones and smell the roses!
The wealth divide
Let’s assume that $1,000 equals a third, or even half, of your net wages every month. In Thurston County, $1,000 a month gets you a crappy two-bedroom, 1.5-bath apartment with a dryer that cycles for 2 hours, carpeting that smells like dog poop, and light switches that don’t work. Upgrades offer one-bedroom, same crappy appliances, faux wood flooring, and mold along every windowsill.
Now let’s assume you have a spouse and 2.5 kids and are paying off college debt at 8 percent.
There is no affordable housing anywhere along the I-5 corridor, certainly not in Olympia. The Legislature can offer up any tax package it wants, but it always comes down to the same bottom line: tax small businesses, increase various fees, etc.
Our state needs a graduated income tax. Do the math. Our median income is $51,000. There are 30 millionaires for every 1,000 people in Washington. Fourteen billionaires live here.
Start the individual/household graduated gross income tax at $100,000 with 2 percent; $250,000 at 3 percent; 500,000 at 5 percent; 750,000 at 8 percent, $1 million at 10 percent; $5 million at 12 percent, etc., up to $1 billion at 95 percent.
Taxing 14 billionaires at 95 percent annually leaves their households with $50 million a year to spend.
A graduated income tax in Washington would pay for education, social services, roads, infrastructure, subsidized housing, mental health, etc., and the very wealthy would still be very wealthy.
Think about it. Our legislature knows it’s the right thing to do. So do the wealthy.
This story was originally published April 5, 2019 at 1:52 PM.