Hands Untied: A video for the Special Session

Welcome to the week of the special session of the Washington State legislature. You have likely heard about the dire predictions for revenue shortfalls and potential cuts. You may have also heard that advocates and activists are going to the capitol to register our concerns. We thought we’d start the week with a little movie trailer:

The Income Tax of 1935 is a real piece of legislation. It would be cheeky for sure, but the Governor could sign it and force a court battle. Even considering substantial climate change, this snowball’s chance in hell is not really the point.

The reason for using the Income Tax of 1935 in the video is to snap out of the mindset that the Governor, or legislators, are incapable of doing things differently than the status quo – which led to this point of desperate measures. Our commitment to our children, our citizens and the future itself is in real jeopardy.

Simply blaming everything on forces outside of Washington State does not do justice to the fact that we have the resources in this State to fix our dire straights in a hurry.

Pushing for new and innovative solutions is one of the principles we will be living by. And not allowing a sales tax battle to split interests against one another is more important than ever. Please stand with social services, health care and all of our vital Washington State agencies.

We need GUTS not CUTS. Income, not sales tax. And political courage not expediency. There are very concrete proposals on the table to raise more revenue than the sales tax proposal would, and begin the long road toward correction of an upside-down state tax system.

Please read more about some of the other options here:

http://oureconomicfuture.org/pdf/TalkingPoints.pdf

http://www.eoionline.org/tax_reform/fact_sheets/one-billion-in-progressive-revenue_nov11.pdf

http://digitalcommons.law.seattleu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1383&context=sulr

http://www.thestranger.com/seattle/the-solution-close-tax-loopholes/Content?oid=7336303

http://oureconomicfuture.org/pdf/ExemptionsVsProgramCuts.pdf