Adele Ferguson - Income tax initiative will go down to fifth defeat

I SEE THE Seattle Times decided to rattle Bill Gates Sr.’s cage in its editorial column instead of sticking The Truth Needle into him.

The Truth Needle is what The Times calls its investigations into claims made by political candidates and campaigns.

They’ve zeroed in on U.S. Sen. Patty Murray and Republican challenger Dino Rossi so far. You know, Patty takes credit for stopping the feds from awarding a $35 billion aircraft tanker contract to a foreign company thus giving Boeing another shot at a bid. The Times responds that she was “mostly right” although she goes a bit far in giving the impression she was a Lone Ranger and did it all by herself.

Rossi got the needle for claiming she voted for every spending bill in Congress since 2004 and The Times tells us she voted against four consecutive budgets starting in fiscal 2004 when Republicans controlled the House, the Senate and the White House. Actually, I don’t know why it matters since the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that candidates were not required to tell the truth about their opponents, but The Times has taken it upon itself to help us voters distinguish between fact and fiction.

But back to Bill Gates Sr., who appears in a television ad that touts Initiative 1098, proposing a state income tax of five percent on annual income above $200,000 for individuals and $400,000 for couples, the supposed sweetener being a cut in the state property tax by 20 percent and an increase in the Business and Occupation tax credit for small businesses to $4,800.

HE NEVER UTTERS the dreaded words state income tax. “I love Washington,” he says. OK, can’t argue with that. He certainly has every reason to. “That’s why I helped write Initiative 1098.” Middle class families have been struggling, he says, so I-1098 will tax higher earning folks plus giving tax breaks to property owners and small businesses. The proceeds will be over $2 billion a year to improve education and health care. “Only 1.2 percent of the wealthiest will pay more. Support I-1098. It’s good for Washington.”

I-1098 is good for Washington like earthquakes and forest fires are good for Washington.

IN AN ARTICLE IN The Times by a couple of King County business organization execs, Mike Sotelo and Craig Dawson, we learn that the very business owners Gates claims to want to help, are hit the hardest.

Almost 70 percent of those earning $200,000 are small business owners, they say.

Also, we lost 130,000 jobs here last year, but mostly in the private sector.

The state lost 3,100, local governments 1,900 and the feds added 1,900.

The Times zaps Bill Jr.s’ pop for not calling it a tax increase and not explaining that the property and B and 0 tax cuts are chickenfeed.

It’s something else that Gates Sr.

doesn’t say, however, that needs to be repeated over and over between now and Nov. 2.

He knows but the average voter forgets that while the Legislature can’t monkey with an initiative for two years after passage, from then on it’s open sesame.

I’ve seen a few letters to the editor praising I-1098 because the big earners will pay it. Boy, are these people in for a surprise if, God forbid, it passes. Our lawmakers would adjust the rate down into the middle class as soon as it’s possible to ensure a more stable return. We would all be paying it. The property tax cut and B and 0 tax increase would be rewritten to restore the bucks there too.

I don’t think it will pass. We’ve said no four times before. We’re not stupid.

(Adele Ferguson can be reached at P.O. Box 69, Hansville, Wa., 98340.)