Dori: 281 cities, towns show support for Seattle income tax

The insatiable desire to get the Holy Grail for Democrats in our state, an income tax, has another ally — in the form of every municipality in Washington.

The Association of Washington Cities includes all 281 cities and towns in Washington, and they now are backing an income tax for the City of Seattle.

RELATED: What Rob McKenna says people outside Seattle should know about income tax lawsuits

Seattle, as you know, wants to establish an income tax, which is absolutely against the state constitution. Our state constitution prohibits any graduated tax on income, period. Voters in this state have said many times on the ballot that they do not want an income tax. Just a couple of weeks ago, I spoke with our state school superintendent, who wants a capital gains tax — which is, for all intents and purposes, an income tax, and absolutely against the state constitution. But the dream of the income tax is the Holy Grail of the left in this state.

In Seattle, a King County judge told the city last year that the city cannot enact an income tax because it would be unconstitutional to do so. Seattle announced shortly afterward that it would be taking the case to the state Supreme Court. And now, all 281 municipalities in the Association of Washington Cities are backing Seattle in this legal battle, according to The Seattle Times.

Regardless of where you live, it should be very disturbing to you that the Association of Washington Cities wants the ability to institute, city by city, an income tax. A Seattle income tax will set a precedent for the rest of the state. You should not want this.

If you give people like tax-happy Jay Inslee, the biggest tax-hiking governor in the country, the new toy of an income tax, imagine what he will do with it. At first it would be, “We just want to tax the rich — only those making over $250,000 per year will be taxed.” And then, “Well, we have a homeless crisis so we’ll lower the threshold — $125,000.” And later, “Well, we’ve got a drug crisis, we’ve got to clean up the streets — we’ve got to lower it to $75,000.” That’s what they do with every tax. The taxes all skyrocket once the politicians get their new toy.

Here’s the danger — Seattle is taking this to the state Supreme Court. The state Supreme Court justices have been completely bought off by left-wing special interests like the Washington Educators Association. You will never see a Supreme Court decision on huge spending matters that go against their campaign funding overlords. After nearly 100 years of precedent of the court and voters saying a tax on income is unconstitutional, putting this in the hands of our state Supreme Court as currently configured is a very dangerous thing.

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