Comments

1
Or maybe the state shouldn't be so fucking quick to roll over and give Boeing a $9 billion tax break.
2
If the Legislature does not move $5B into education funds by x date, what legal power do the courts in our state system have over them?

Could the Courts initiate new revenue/tax to cover the gap?
Could the Courts order our book keepers/bankers to shift all the cash around? Like, just grab it from our General Fund?
Hold the Legislature in contempt and jail people till they play ball with the law?
3
@2
“We have no wish to be forced into entering specific funding directives to the State, or, as some high courts have done, holding the legislature in contempt of court,” the court said, hinting at possible ways it could step up pressure on lawmakers.


It's pretty much spelled out in the article, but it sure would be interesting to watch in either case...

4
I grew up in Iowa, where they have an income tax. The public schools are well-funded and well-performing. The public colleges and universities are well-regarded and still affordable. The sales tax is 5%. You can deduct your state taxes from your federal taxes. What's not to love?
5
Perhaps if Microsoft, Boeing, and Amazon actually paid taxes....? But I understand; they'd rather complain about the state of public schools and how they need highly-skilled foreign workers instead. Besides, paying taxes would ruin Bill Gates' attempts to destroy a public school system and rebuild a neoliberal, privatized school system where he dictates what is taught and who teaches it.
6
Somewhere in Mukilteo, a failed watch repairman is reading this and drafting his next two ballot initiatives to make sure that these two solutions, if not outlawed at the ballot box, are at least made a hot enough of a political potato to ensure that the state legislature does nothing to enact them.

@ 4, Iowa's education culture is well documented, what with it's virtually nonexistent dropout rate and being the birthplace of the standardized test. I'm not sure that they wouldn't find a way to adequately fund schools if they had no income tax.
7
I blame not enough white parents at PTA meetings. Private school parents. Hippie homeschoolers. And worst of all, some white people haven't bred at all. Out riding their fixies to artisan pickle meetups instead of going to PTA meetings for their six kids.

Oh, but what does having the "right" (white liberal) people at PTA meetings have to do with a state government that won't fund schools?

Two words: bakes sales. Bake sales, my friend. Apparently second rate parents can't bake. Whereas what sets apart parents who send their kids to private school is their baking. Hundreds of millions of dollars worth of baking.

I learned all this and more from my good friend Malcolm Gladwell.
8
The Court could hold legislators in contempt of court and jail them for an indeterminant period. That would be fun.

The Court could also seize state property and sell it to fund education. That would be fun to watch as well.

How any of these legislators can cry poor when it comes to school funding while granting Boeing a huge tax break is beyond me. Tax breaks are spending, and they are the kind of spending that is most out of control. If Republicans what to control spending that's where they should start.
9
@4,5,6, well, everyone...
What if, the next time one of our large employers tried to extort more tax breaks, the media (all of them) laid it out that way?

"X amount of tax breaks equals Y reduction in school funding, road funding, and so on"


Please wait...

Comments are closed.

Commenting on this item is available only to members of the site. You can sign in here or create an account here.


Add a comment
Preview

By posting this comment, you are agreeing to our Terms of Use.