Democrat State Representatives in Washington voted down lowering taxes for many families today when they voted against Representative Drew Stokesbary’s amendment to SHB 1843.
To help put the vote into some perspective, here are a few of the financial ramifications of the vote. State Rep. Pat Sullivan (D-47) voted against a $1.20 levy reduction for Auburn School District families – against an average $300 of savings for the typical homeowner. Sullivan voting against the amendment also cost Kent School District homeowners the chance to see a $1.16 levy reduction, meaning he cost Kent families an average of $330 in savings.
Representatives Mike Pellicciotti (D-30) and Kristine Reeves (D-30) cost Federal Way School District families a $1.39 cut to their levy and an average of $350 per homeowner in yearly savings.
As we’ve tweeted earlier today, the proposal from the Washington State House Democrats is only serving wealthy schools – making rich schools richer and poor schools poorer. Democrats refuse to look for an actual solution to the McCleary decision and insist upon relying upon inequitable levies to fund education.
State Rep. Stokesbary (R-31) did a good job explaining in a recent hearing why the Democrats’ reliance on inequitable levy funding is bad for our students and families.
The middle class can’t afford this. The state reps need to make cuts.
Much like a household in the negative…
Instead of soda, drink water.
instead of dining out, save the money and fix the driveway…
Cuts need to be made.
Stop reaching into our pockets like Seattle does to their own people and lying to them to get elected…
much like Jay Inslee.
The democrats in this state are why I left the Democrat party.
Much like a household in the negative…
Instead of soda, drink water.
Yes, a state government is much like a household.
Sure it is.
Maybe the Democrats expelled you for being such a simpleton?
I may be a simpleton, also, but read his comments to suggest state government should try to be MORE like a standard household.
Of course, you’ve proven that you lack the simple ability to comprehend comments the rest of us find rather easy to grasp.
How about operating a jetliner more like a bicycle? I mean, they are both vehicles for transport, and on a per-mile, per-pound basis, the bicycle is far more efficient. What could possibly go wrong?
Just because an analogy is “rather easy to grasp” does not make it relevant, useful, intelligent, or even remotely sane.
Here’s a truly simple solution…a balanced budget.
A balanced budget is already required by our state’s constitution.
As is adequate funding for education, our state’s paramount duty.
How about you try knowing what you’re talking about?
Typical lib response – ad hominen, childish name-calling.
WHEN STUPID IS IN SESSION, WASHINGTON STATE DEMOCRAPS STEP UP FOR THE FREE PHONE AND SCREAM IT IS MINE, IT IS MINE IT IS MINE AND TO HELL WITH ALL YOU OTHERS, YOU SHALL PAY FOR MY ENTITLEMENTS…..ALL YOUR LIVES, UNTIL YOU VOTE US OUT OF OFFICE, WHICH YOU WILL NEVER DO !!!!! BECAUSE YOU ARE “OUR ” SHEEP FOR LIFE……..THAT IS WHAT THE DEMOCRAPS IN THIS STATE THINK OF THE VOTERS !!!!
There’s really, at this point, only one way to dethrone the Progressive/Fabian Socialists of Olympia. Natural disasters. Huge earthquakes (think Cascadia super-quake). Multiple, simultaneous volcanic eruptions of the Cascade volcanoes. Massive mud flows. Inundation by tsunamis. Things the bureaucrats & technocrats can’t regulate or tax out of existence.
These elitists have so skewed the population, with most all the voting parasites and looters living west of the Cascades, there’s no way to break their stranglehold on the rest of us, and they, will most certainly will not let us go because the deluded, demon-possessed, toadish, groveling, boot-licking, crony capitalists of western Washington can’t, on their own, continue to feed the beast.
We’re a lot like Virginia was in the 1800s, with different cultures, different politics, different societies separated by geology. That’s basically how & why West Virginia came to be. In our case, the only reliable solution, (because we can’t rely upon natural disasters), and because there’s no two-state solution available to us (although, that would be the ideal solution), is to suck it up and physically abandon the state altogether, in favor of some place more favorable to traditional, societal, cultural, economic, and political conservatism.
These elitists have so skewed the population, with most all the voting parasites and looters living west of the Cascades,
Wrong.
A taxpayer in King County receives sixty-five cents in state government services for each dollar in taxes paid to Olympia.
A taxpayer in Spokane County receives $1.27 in state government services for each dollar in taxes paid to Olympia.
When are you going to stop being a looting, parasitical, socialistic thief, Mike in Spokane?
You aren’t taking into consideration the population difference or the disparity in tax base between Spokane and Seattle. Go ahead and expound on that for awhile and enlighten everybody.
You aren’t taking into consideration the population difference…
The per capita comparison I gave did exactly that.
The citizens of Spokane County receive more state government services than they contribute in taxes. Mike needs to understand that before he embarrasses himself yet further.
…the disparity in tax base between Spokane and Seattle.
What is it about urban liberals and our tremendous economic productivity? Is it our liberal economic policies?
Fail.
Try again.
How about you inform Mike he’s wrong, and that if the mass casualties he’s slobbering to fantasize here actually happen, it will cost him twenty-seven per cent more in taxes to get the state government services he enjoys?
Meanwhile, have you any idea why urban liberals are so darned economically productive?
I didn’t challenge anything Mike said, I don’t need to inform him of anything.
Ah, yes, liberals are so darned economically productive!
Seattle debt per capita = $7,794
Spokane debt per capita = $3,683
Spokane had an $8 million budget deficit last year. Revenue has been found for this year’s projected budget to balance the deficit.
Seattle, on the other hand, faces a $74 million deficit this year for schools alone.
Now what was that you were saying about how liberals are so darned economically productive?
Ah, yes, liberals are so darned economically productive!
Um, you did understand the bit about tax money collected in King County being spent in places like Spokane, correct?
The same link shows King County sent $2.4B more to Olympia in just one year alone than it received in state government services.
If that money had stayed in King County, instead of being redistributed by the state government, do you think Seattle might have more money?
Yes, we are very productive. We can even finance surplus budgets at the other end of our state:
Spokane had an $8 million budget deficit last year. Revenue has been found for this year’s projected budget to balance the deficit.
So, they’re going to take less than $1.27 per $1.00 they send?
Or maybe they can pay more toward the $250M cost of the North-South Freeway?
Trying to argue your feeble point about state tax dollars is really amusing.
I see you didn’t address my facts at all.
I see you didn’t address my facts at all.
On the contrary, I agreed they are relevant. That Spokane *has* public debt, after the taxpayers there receive so much free money from King County’s taxpayers, is a really serious indictment of their ability to govern. Thanks for mentioning it.
Trying to argue your feeble point about state tax dollars is really amusing.
You people really can’t handle admitting you’re on the receiving end of wealth
which was redistributed from liberals by the government, can you?
Well, at least you’re not publicly fantasizing about the violent deaths of children. Yet.
“You people”
When the liberal resorts to ad hominems, you know you’ve won the argument.
You might want to learn what “ad hominem” means — and while you do that, I’ll re-phrase my question for your limited understanding:
Is there a circumstance under which you’ll admit tax money flows from liberals in King County to conservatives in the rest of the state?
If your answer is no, just admit it, and we can be done here.
More snark, I expected as much from someone who has no valid argument.
I’ll take that as a “no.”
We’re done here.
Take it as I typed it.
So, the answer to inadequate education funding is to cut taxes?
Sure it is.
There couldn’t possibly be anything obviously wrong with that.
(Not that Shift can see, anyway…)
The money for funding government run schools will never be “enough”. There will always be another “McCleary decision” waiting right around the corner…as long as Liberals run the state.
There will always be another “McCleary decision” waiting right around the corner…as long as Liberals run the state.
Well, so long as Washington State’s Constitution defines education as the state’s paramount duty, yes, it will be the most important item in the budget. If you want to change that, please contact your state Representatives and/or state Senator and propose a constitutional amendment.
The money for funding government run schools will never be “enough”.
Is there a known upper limit on benefit per expenditure for education? If we get the same or similar benefit for each education dollar, why would we limit ourselves? It’s not like Boeing, Microsoft, Amazon, Paccar, or other employers will ever want less-educated employees, correct?
Evidence exists which shows that, while spending in education has steadily risen, our students are progressively doing worse. What the country needs is a major revamp of our education system…not just more money thrown at it.
Evidence exists which shows that, while spending in education has steadily risen, our students are progressively doing worse.
Then I suggest you supply such evidence.
To what end? You can research it, yourself, if you are really interested.
So, you’ve got nothing, then. Looks like we’re done here.
Evidence exists which shows that, while spending in education has steadily risen, our students are progressively doing worse.
Then I suggest you supply such evidence.
So, the answer to inadequate education funding is to cut taxes?
So, we have spent more, but you deny that our students are doing worse and demand evidence, so you must think they are improving – evidence?
Next you state that our spending is inadequate. So, we are spending inadequate amounts of money for education, but our students aren’t getting worse with that inadequate funding.
You don’t really care what the subject is, you just want higher taxes everywhere except King County.
Roots — before you question the value of educational expenditures, you might want to do a little bit better on basic reading comprehension:
…you deny that our students are doing worse…
No, I was responding to Randy’s explicit claim that such evidence existed. I then asked him to supply some of this evidence, and he refused.
…so you must think they are improving – evidence?
Your wild jump to a conclusion does not oblige anyone else to do anything.
Next you state that our spending is inadequate.
No, our state’s Supreme Court so ruled in McCleary, to which Randy referred; I did not.
Next you state that our spending is inadequate.
The closest I came to that was when I questioned the headline poster’s claim that cutting some school levies would somehow help in satisfying McCleary.
The rest of your comment consists entirely of speculations stated as facts. Since claims made without evidence may be dismissed without evidence, I do so here.
just take in, and read some job applications to have proof. Own a business and get a first hand look and the incompetence, illiteracy, and inability to think independently. I’ll hire a senior before a millennial.
Take a look at your property tax statement, if you want evidence (of course, that’s assuming you’re a property owner). Otherwise google it yourself if you dispute his statement.
It’s not my job to provide evidence for the statements he makes. His failure to do so is not my problem,
If you doubt what he says, it’s your job to look it up. This is the internet, not a courtroom.
If you doubt what he says, it’s your job to look it up.
Yet you keep asking me, in this very thread, to provide evidence you claim is lacking.
Take your own advice, then. Show us how it’s done.
This has to be the silliest conversation on the entire thread!
I have asked you nowhere to provide evidence of anything. I challenged you to expound on statistical variances that I provided which would put into context your facile claim about disparities in state tax benefits between Seattle and Spokane.
Try again.
This has to be the silliest conversation on the entire thread!
Your insistence that I provide evidence for claims other people failed to support is sillier.
…statistical variances that I provided…
And where did you provide those? I don’t see any numbers here.
…into context your facile claim about disparities in state tax benefits between Seattle and Spokane.
Try again with your words. “Facile” does not mean “well-documented and relevant”. I merely cited statistics showing that Mike was dead flat wrong in his assertion about the locations of state taxes and expenditures. If you want to help him with that, please go ahead; it’s no longer any of my concern.
Please point out where I insisted you supply evidence of anything.
Oh, that’s right, you can’t.
Well, at least I got you to look up the definition of facile…
Please point out where I insisted you supply evidence of anything.
Here:
I challenged you to expound on statistical variances that I provided which would put into context your facile claim about disparities in state tax benefits between Seattle and Spokane.
You haven’t provided any “statistical variances” upon which I must “expound,” and you’ve elsewhere told me to look up evidence to support other people’s claims (!), so I assumed you were doing that here.
If you don’t know what you’re asking me to do, then I don’t either.
Well, at least I got you to look up the definition of facile…
Some of us like to know the definitions of the words we use.
Apparently you don’t know the definition of the word “expound”. It’s easily found online for your understanding.
Apparently you fail to understand you’ve not provided any statistical variances upon which anyone may expound.
Allow me to simplify this discussion for you.
The amount of funds a city receives from the state in proportion to what it has contributed in taxes is absolutely no indicator of how successfully (or incompetently) that city is managed.
The amount of funds a city receives from the state in proportion to what it has contributed in taxes is absolutely no indicator of how successfully (or incompetently) that city is managed.
Let me simply that for you further: “Income and expenditure have no effect on financial status.”
Now we can all have a laugh at your foolish attempt at a lie.
It’s a pity you have no reading comprehension, but I’d expect no less from a person incapable of having an honest discussion.
The knowledge that conservative counties are “on the dole” from liberal King County just does not go down well, does it?
Let me repeat this for you:
The amount of funds a city receives from the state in proportion to what it has contributed in taxes is absolutely no indicator of how successfully (or incompetently) that city is managed.
Let me repeat this for you:
Repeat it all you like. It remains false, and obviously false, no matter how many times you do.
Which leaves us with just your inability to admit our state government redistributes wealth from liberal King County to conservative counties — to where the local governments still can’t make ends meet (!).
But that’s your problem, not mine. We’re done here.
Not my problem at all! I have no problem with facts.
Straw man arguments. Ra is correct, public schools never have enough tax-payer dollars. Those dollars do not translate into a better education, as we know from various studies on the topic. Those dollars, however, do buy the teachers better pay, retirement plan and health care.
Liberals are all about choice…unless that choice is about schools, as we’ve seen from their lucidrous arguments against giving low-income kids vouchers to get to better schools. Protect the teacher’s unions at all cost!
Public school administrators find ways – no matter how wasteful or useless – to spend every penny of a surplus as well, so that their new year’s budgets are not diminished in any way.
Those dollars do not translate into a better education, as we know from various studies on the topic.
Not one of whom you have here cited, provided quotes from, or provided links to. Why do you believe you can get more for less in educating children — our state government’s paramount duty — yet the answer to other problems is more spending? (Or is Spokane going to refuse the new, and redundant, North-South Freeway we’re building there via WSDOT?)
Those dollars, however, do buy the teachers better pay, retirement plans and health care.
Rewarding professionals for doing important work is so private sector.
Seriously, teachers who can excel in educating our future workers in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Technology (STEM) can make far more money as existing workers in those tech’ sectors. Why should they make such a sacrifice? Why should we not pay more to invest in our future?
Liberals are all about choice…unless that choice is about schools, as we’ve seen from their lucidrous arguments against giving low-income kids vouchers to get into better schools. Protect the teacher’s unions at all cost!
Actually, I am all about choice; I volunteer with students at a public “magnet” school. The objections to charters and vouchers is the diversion of public funds to private schools without proper accountability. Expenditures without oversight is taxation without representation, and I refuse to give up the core cause of our American Revolution without a fight.
Public school administrators find ways – no matter how wasteful or useless – to spend every penny of a surplus as well, so that their new year’s budgets are not diminished in any way.
Ever work in a private-sector bureaucracy? They’re even better at it.
We need to deport all the Californians who moved up here a turned this state into a socialist wackadoodle state