No Doesn't Mean No to the Democrats

UPDATED: Thanks to April for pointing out the news article. You can find the link in the comments section. It turns out that this bill has died due to the public input! I guess some Democrats do listen, too bad, we have to be constantly vigilant of them so they don't slip this crud past us. I guess if they really listened we would not have even seen this ill proposed. -- Scotty
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No doesn't mean no when you're a West-side Democrat. Some years ago the people of Washington didn't want to pay hundreds of dollars each year for licensing tabs. So we now pay thirty bucks. But these Democrats: Rodney Tom - Bellevue/Redmond area, Jeanne Kohl-Welles - Seattle area, Craig Pridemore - Vancouver area, Karen Keiser - Kent/SeaTac area, Adam Kline - Seattle area have sponsored a bill that will add a "fee" not a tax onto your car based not on price, but engine size. The larger the engine the more it will cost. For my 1980 Toyota I will be paying around $100 a year. For my Dodge I will be paying around $360 a year.

Then in 2012 the new fee will go away to be replaced with a CO2 emissions "fee". But when you are compelled to pay something by the government, I would consider it a tax. Plain and simple.

I find it strange someone from Vancouver would support this. When you make someone pay $400 a year again for licensing tabs, he will again go to Oregon to get licensed. Those in this part of the state people will probably start licensing in Idaho again.

The money is supposed to go to "transportation" purposes only, but that is not clarified. So, I would guess, using other measures as a reference point, more than 1/2 of this money will go to putting mass transit in the Puget Sound region.

But the bottom line is that we, the citizens of Washington spoke. But the Democrats just don't listen.

See it for yourself:

Senate Bill 6900

Finally, a Government Subsidy Jim Fisher Likes

You remember liberal-tarian Lewiston Tribune columnist Jim Fisher takes a dim view of the government building a water and sewer system:

If Hawkins were doing what other developers have done in paying the cost of its own development, county revenues from sales and property taxes on the new mall would begin flowing immediately into county coffers.

But in today's column, Fisher is filled with praise for Whitman County for spending $42,795 of the taxpayer's money to help purchase and operate a wood chipper that will "travel the county grinding the wood waste that otherwise might be burned" and encouraging towns to set up composting facilities. He contrasts this with "backwards" Asotin County, that still foolishly expects property owners to either pony up themselves for a chipper or *gasp* burn their brush.

My question is, what if Hakwins uses the wood chipper when they clear off their property to build?

Teaching kids about taxes via Halloween

I love this video


I showed this video to a friend and he did the same thing to his son after doing the "power trick-or-treating". His son was in tears, he gave back the candy and his son learned a lesson about taxes.
I remember seeing this in 2000 at the Libertarian Party website. I did vote for Harry Browne in 2000. I wished I taped his 2000 political commercials, they played them usually very late at night and they were quite funny. The best one in my opinion was the "Rosemary's Baby" commercial. I would have to give second place to his commercial about demolishing the IRS building and selling chunks of it to pay off the debt. Sadly, Browne passed away last year.

In A Word: Ouch

HT: Captain Capitalism


At least we don't live in Connecticut.

[Cross-posted from Versus the Mob]

Moscow's water use washes away your arguments

Mark Solomon, who observes the Palouse from his homestead on top of Moscow Mountain and is hopefully not ruining the views for other people said:

Big boxes and car dealerships or knowledge-based industries? Are you listening Whitman County? There's only so much water to go around.

Sure, we are listening. Why does it have to be an either/or situation? No one is trying to stop "knowledge-based industries" from locating on SR270. But that is because there is no one to stop! No one is lining up to do it. Stop with this PARD like tactic. PARD uses Target to try to stop WalMart. Moscowites (who love our tax dollars) try to stop retail development in Whitman County by using "knowledge-based industries" as a distraction.

Oh, yeah, about that water comment...

Since 1992 Moscow has exceeded their targeted water use by 763 million gallons. While during the same period Pullman has come in below their target by 644 million gallons.

Maybe if Moscow didn't hog all the water in the aquifer, we would have some for the Hawkins development.

Room for Improvement

Reported today on MSN Money:

The Best and Worst States for Taxes
In terms of combined local, state, and federal taxes, Washington state comes in at the 4th highest taxed state in the nation, at 33.7%!

And the leftists/collectivists in Olympia want an income tax, too.