Income Tax for Funding Justice
Your President’s column was excellent, in that it was clear and objective about the basic problem, and I agree with your conclusion that the funds for the legal system ought to come out of the general fund. In your column, and in quoting our Governor, the question comes up, “from where does the money come?”
I don’t like paying taxes. Gasoline taxes are hitting the news. Sales taxes continue to climb, but they are also a fairly constant comment in groups through which I pass, recently one woman talking about going to Portland to purchase her wedding gown, to save the sales tax.
So the topic of state income tax comes up, and every politician who suggests it gets stomped, it seems. I think that we are in state-funding trouble. I also think that the state income tax has an element of fairness to it, compared to the sales tax, where the higher incomes pay the greater amount of money, while in sales tax, it hits everyone but not necessarily fairly.
The topic of a state income tax, in our state, one of very few states left which do not have it, I thought I saw the number now being eight states without it, feels like the reaction to the child who graduates from school and is told that he/she must now go out and work for his or her own living expenses, no more free room and board at the family home. It is abrupt, but it also comes with benefits, going out and going to work, and I think that once we get into having a state income tax, all will quiet down and appreciate the funding benefit it will bring to our state.
Edward W Hunekebr
Seattle
