Jay Inslee has spent recent week denying he favors a state income tax, even though (as Shift has repeatedly pointed out) Inslee himself proposed an income tax himself in 2014. Apparently trying to do him a favor in a Seattle blog today, former Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn repeats the claim that “Inslee opposes an income tax.”
Of course, McGinn – who was unceremoniously shown from office in his re-election bid in 2013 – sees opposition to raising taxes as a sign of weakness in his party’s gubernatorial nominee, writing that an income tax “would seem to be right in the state Democratic Party wheelhouse. But it’s not. This solid blue state is more conservative than the national party on the issue.”
What McGinn ignores is that the State Democrat Party is very much in favor of an income tax – in fact, it’s a “guiding principle” in the party platform. What McGinn also ignores is that the voters of this state are the reason we don’t have an income tax, as they have voted one down all nine times it has been down on the ballot.
But, apparently McGinn doesn’t think much of the voters having a say in things, which is not surprising given the outcome the last time he was on the ballot.
