Here in WA we only have three this year since we finally abolished Tim Eyman’s tax advisory votes, but they’re all hard no’s;
I-2109: Repeal the capital gains tax
I-2117: Repeal carbon cap-and-trade
I-2124: Make the long-term healthcare plan tax optional
They just are using 36 numbers, but there are no numbers 7 through 31 .
I dont get that- do they want Capital Gains to NOT be taxed- or that they want capital Gains to be taxed as ordinary income- which is a GREAT idea.
WA doesn’t have an income tax, so a yes vote would mean capital gains would be untaxed by the state.
Are capital gains currently taxed?
Under a law that went into effect last year, capital gains in excess of $250k are taxed at 7%. Prior to then they were not. The state constitution prohibits an income tax but the state Supreme Court has ruled this tax permissible.
I did forget to mention that in addition to the three “Initiatives to the Legislature”, we also have one “Initiative to the People”, which is a completely different thing for reasons I do not understand;
I-2066: Prohibit state and local governments from banning natural gas and require all utilities to offer it for sale
Moderating: I split this from the California Propositions 2024 thread. Please avoid hijacking threads in the future. That thread is clearly about California and not Washington. Starting a new thread was the thing to do.
The first part of post 1 in this thread belongs in the CA thread. Dunno if that’s within your mod powers
It is not, the fact the first part did belong in the other thread was obvious, and I moved it here to remove the entire hijack. No more on this please.
If that’s how it will show up on the ballot, then that’s a REALLY REALLY STUPID proposal. As written, it would mean the Electric utility would have to start selling gas; if Cable is considered a utility, they’d have to sell gas. Etc.
It may sound like I’m being pedantic, but stupider rules than that have made it through state legislatures with obvious disasterous results.
This long term care law was passed with good intentions, but it’s a terrible plan. I was able to permanently opt out by buying a private plan for one year and then cancelling it. Others weren’t so lucky. I’m all for big government solutions to health care problems, but I do think people should be able to make their own decisions about long term care insurance, provided they’re willing to live with the consequences.
As written, only gas companies and “large combination utilities” would have to offer natural gas; it also requires that cities and towns that offer natural gas not try to force residents to use something else, and it also appears to get rid of a requirement for the large utilities to file a plan by the start of 1997 to switch its gas users to electricity.
After years of conservatives treating capital gains taxes differently than income taxes at the federal level, it would be ironic if that was part of the reasoning that made a capital gains tax legal in Washington.