With this year’s election season in full swing now that the legislature has adjourned, it’s not just the candidates who are stepping up their rhetorical game. The campaigns for ballot measures are also beginning to round into shape, which means that voters can count on liberals to find new ways to push their usual extreme “green” and tax-hiking agendas..
This year, the lefties are not disappointing. In fact, they are combining their extreme “green” schemes with tax hikes so large they would bring property taxes and sales taxes to unprecedented levels in King, Pierce, and Snohomish counties – if they manage to fool voters into supporting them.
These not-so-pleasant-delights will confront voters in the form of Initiative 732, the allegedly “revenue neutral” carbon tax, and Sound Transit’s latest scam, Sound Transit 3 (ST3).
Like so many of us, you might have a handful of low-information voters in your life who—when bombarded with propaganda pushed by campaigns with a lot of money to spend—will be tempted to vote for the promise of a “revenue neutral” tax that reduces carbon emissions and/or a highly inter-connected transportation infrastructure built by a responsible, effective agency.
Luckily, we’ve got you covered with some reality-based facts that may help burst the carefully constructed bubble of (mis)information sure to be created by the liberals pushing their bigger-government schemes.
When a voter actually believes I-732 will reduce carbon emissions via a revenue neutral tax scheme, let them know:
- Far from being “revenue neutral,” I-732 is projected to reduce state tax revenues by $915 million over four years – with most of the tax break going to Boeing, at time when the state is struggling to meet its funding obligation to our public schools. That figure is up from an earlier estimate that pegged the four-year budget hit at $675 million.
- I-732 is a highly flawed measure. In fact, its own leaders requested that state lawmakers deliver another option for voters because, as they were forced to admit, the plan is flawed.
- All the flaws that have popped up since supporters wrote I-732 reveals the almost innate uncertainty and instability associated with “green” measures. Add that to the uncertainty created by the likelihood that Jay Inslee will continue to try to jam through his job-killing carbon rule by executive order, and you have yourself a truly harmful economic scenario.
When a voter actually believes that trusting Sound Transit with another $50 billion dollars is a good idea, let them know:
- This year’s ST3 package doesn’t give taxpayers living in East King County, South King County, and Pierce County anything close to an even return on their investments, especially when compared to the Seattle/North King and Snohomish subareas.
- ST3 would establish a sales tax rate of 10% in much of the greater Seattle area and 10.1% in Seattle. Much of Snohomish County would have a 10.3% sales tax rate. To be clear, these increased tax rates would continue indefinitely, there is no clause to “sunset” them after the project is completed.
- ST3 would, for the first time, increase the property tax, by 25 cents per $1,000 valuation. Simply put, it would raise the property tax rate to an unsustainable level.
- Sound Transit has a long record of being late and over-budget with virtually every project it has promised to voters. Why should voters throw another $50 billion at an agency that has proven itself incapable of managing our tax dollars efficiently? There is no reason to believe ST3 will be any different.
There you have it – just a few factoids to help voters confused by the liberals’ far-fetched “green” claims to return to reality.
