February 22, 2006

DIRECTOR'S CORNER

by TIM HARRIS

The knee-jerk, anti-tax right is poised to treat the $1.4 billion left over from this round of state budgeting as a gift to be squandered. Topping their wish list is passage of an initiative to end the estate tax. This maneuver, were voters to actually approve, would effectively shift part of Washington State’s tax burden from the 200 wealthiest individuals to the broad middle class. Even if one buys the increasingly common argument that the super-rich are somehow a class in need of our protection, you’d still have to deal with the fact that we already live in the most tax-regressive state in the union.

If what we’re after is justice, there are far better uses for the money. Consider this: the monthly payment for GA-U, or what most people would still call “welfare,” is $339 a month. Take a minute to allow that princely sum to roll around in your head. For my family, that would pretty much cover parking and gas for a month, after which, I suppose, we’d live in our car and eat in soup kitchens. Perhaps not surprisingly, more and more people are doing just that.

Over the past few years, more than a billion dollars has been trimmed from critical programs that serve the most needy. There is no surplus. There is simply a lack of economic justice and an opportunity to make things more right.