How Do You Like Your Metro-Saving Taxes: Progressive or Regressive?


Sales taxes are inherently regressive. It is inaccurate to say they "hit the poor and wealthy equally hard." Just a nitpick.
Allen thinks the Transportation Benefit District Board is trying to create jobs? What a dunce.
There needs to be a little reality check here: a .1% rise in the sales tax is not going to be oppressive to poor people (or low-income people like me). We basically don't buy anything except food, and food isn't taxed. An additional .1% tax on a $50 purchase would amount to 50 cents. Regressive taxes are bad, but sometimes bad is better than worse (less bus service).
If your business goes into the red because of the minor increases proposed in Plan A, then you are well due to fail anyway. This is Capitalism, right? This whole 'my small business...' cry is wolf. It's the major corps that are actively shuttering the little guys with every trick in their books. Time for the 21st Century playing field in Seattle.
Gawd... Both funding sources suck rancid ass. While I'm always opposed to any sales tax increase on the grounds that it is regressive and unstable, I'm not so thrilled with the effect of a head tax on small business, especially on top of our just enacted 15.00 minimum wage. (Is there a small business carve out here?)
A choice between eating shit or poop. Hurray.
Since Metro users are higher than average income earners, raise the fares.
".1% tax on a $50 purchase would amount to 50 cents. "

Well, now we know how the po' are made.
Why do both proposals have a flat $60 vehicle license fee increase? That's the most regressive part of either proposal.

Fuck the vehicle license fee.
Proposal A with a Millionaires Sales Tax added on all property transactions for individuals and corporations with gross revenues over $1 million of 0.1%

And extend the Monorail from Westlake to the entire 40 mile route with minimal Tokyo style stations

No, it ain't over till we say it's over - if you can shove a Deep Gregoire Tunnel down our throats we can vote a Sixth Time!
@4 is correct

Adam Smith hated Mercantalism
It's been several years since our democratic state legislators sued to undo the 2/3 majority for raising taxes.

I haven't seen them pass anything resembling progressive taxation yet, nor have I seen them suing to change the interpretation of the charter.

Go democans!
If this were 2016, when seven of nine members will be elected from districts, I'm confident the progressive option would be better received by city council.
Why not just raise bus fares?

Why is Sawant not in favor of a property tax?

Doesn't make much sense...
While I realize its the employer who pays the bill, levying the same tax for an Amazon exec and a barista actually seems more regressive to me. This is essentially an income tax, tuned so-regressive that a 10k worker pays at 10x the percentage as a 100k work.
@13- because they're already too high, you simpering right wing fuck stick.
Public transit needs to be cheap. Cheap enough for the poorest to use. Cheap enough to encourage everyone else to use at least occasionally. And it needs to run often, reliably, at all hours, everywhere. Why? Because a transit system that does those things is good for business. Less cars on the road means more efficient delivery of goods and services. Less cars on the road means trucks move faster, sales people who have to drive from account to account can make more calls, service calls for repair of office machinery arrive on time, etc. because a functioning city relies on cheap public transit to get things done.
Not that your bullshit, Calvinist view point gives a flying fuck about any of that, but, there you go. Now fuck off.

thats fucking bullshit and you know it. The bus system needs to be self sustaining - not financed on the backs of people WHO DONT FUCKING USE IT.

I dont give a FUCK if your bus fare costs $10 each way - TOUGH SHIT - thats what it costs - YOU CHEAP, LAZY MOTHERFUCKING SOMETHINGFORNOTHING PIECE OF SHIT.


you want cheap fares, then get metro to trim their fat - they have plenty of it. Dont believe me? Look at their fucking payroll.
I'm bored out of my mind as soon as I read the byline.
@17 No shit. And just watch, come November, when Metro's lies are fully exposed, sales taxes are rising, the crying wolf becomes tiresome, Seattle will vote no. Just like the did for McGinn's $60 car tabs.

Then that cheap fuck Pol Pot (nice, racist name there asshole. i guess you have no Cambodian friends) will rue the day his mother shat him out.
Think the traffic is bad now? Just wait till there's less bus service. Pay up or sit in traffic. I'll be laughing at you fools because I live 20 blocks from work. I'll be out enjoying myself while you shoot each other or road rage!
Also, it should be noted that the proposals both RELY on the $60 car tab fee. The revenue from the ultra-regressive $60 car tab increase makes up more than 50% of either proposal.

Downplaying the $60 car tab fee will not negate that both proposals have, at their base, an extremely regressive tax increase that negates any "progressive" taxation in either proposal.

King County rejected the $60 car tab fee that is in both Proposal A and Proposal B. Seattle would do right to reject it again as well. It's fucking regressive as fuck and should not be considered a viable option.
"Think the traffic is bad now? Just wait till there's less bus service"

Horseshit. Metro has plenty of redundant lines, overlapping & late night lines they can cut back on. It would have zero effect on traffic.

Raise fares, get rid of transfers, sales tax receipts increase. Voila.
The public hearing this Thursday is not just the next one, it's the *only* public hearing on this issue. The Transit Riders Union is holding a rally at 4:00 PM outside City Hall, before the hearing starts at 5:30. TRU is supporting the Sawant/Licata amendment, as the most progressive of the city's funding options.…
Thanks Katie and great photo of nothing but white people out demanding regressive taxes.
Hey Ansel, cause both depend heavily on the 60 buck car tab THEY ARE BOTH REGRESSIVE. Sure one is a little less regressive then the other but they are both fucking regressive so stop with this mayors regressive proposal versus progressive proposal bullshit. Your smarter then this. You made a lot of good points in this article but fuck CM Sawants proposal is not progressive, its regressive, less regressive then the mayors but still regressive.
@21 is correct. If they keep the $60 vehicle license fee on there then they darn well better attach that to the bicycles that are using the roads too.
Raise the B&O tax.
@21, characterizing the tripling of the fee as a "bump" was downplaying it, no doubt about it.
It's a false choice presented to anybody that is stuck driving no matter what happens.
And where are the builder impact fees?
Cheerleading density without having a fucking plan for how those people get around that moving into those giant cubes fucking stupid.
@9 I still have my Monorail coffee cup. Right next to the Sonics jersey.! We can only hope.
As long as routes like the 208/209 exist and operate alongside competing Sound Transit routes, Metro is not a viable agency -- it will always lose giant wads of cash. It's time to let it fail and reboot the entire system. We cannot afford 2+ competing transit systems, but that's exactly what we have right now.…
It's pretty important to have commenter's calling the Stranger's bluff when their writers regurgitate Sawant's talking points, as well.
@17: "The bus system needs to be self sustaining -- not financed on the backs of people WHO DONT FUCKING USE IT."

You are hilarious!

Do you have the slightest idea how much car-related infrastructure is subsidized by the government, i.e. taxpayers, including taxpayers who don't have cars? Of course you don't, otherwise you'd know how stupid your statement makes you sound.

Drivers barely pay for half of all road spending (…) and many vehicle manufacturers receive subsidies too. And don't try to tell me that buses and bicyclists use the roads just as much as cars because we both know that's bullshit. Mercer hasn't been under construction for 20 years to accommodate buses and bicycles. I-5 doesn't come to a standstill because of a five-mile bus backup.

So you're suckling at the government teat just as much if not more than your standard transit user. Enjoy!
@31, are you that clueless or are you just trolling? Routes like the 208 and 209 are more important to keep than a 72 or a 48. Urban residents have a plethora of transportation options. Suburban sprawl residents (yes, North Bend is suburban, not rural) have two choices: car or bus. Keep the 208 and 209, and tell people in Seattle to use the Burke-Gilman more.
There is no Sound Transit competition for the 208/209. You're using irrelevant data to bolster your ludicrous position.
@21 and 25, the car tab fee is progressive, not regressive. It is impossible to have a regressive car tab fee. Cars are a luxury, like alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana in this state. Do you complain that alcohol taxes are regressive because they unfairly impact the homeless bum buying Mad Dog 20/20, because he can less afford the tax than the fat cat buying 200 dollar bottles of wine? In the end, your whining about car tab fees being regressive sounds similarly ridiculous. Triple car fees, and keep them flat. It still wouldn't be a regressive tax. Car tab fees are a luxury/sin tax. Don't like them? Don't use the luxury. Don't complain about the cost of your luxury, either.
@36 Why, yes I do think that sin taxes are fucking incredibly regressive. I've been saying that for years. Cigarettes, alcohol, soda, sugar...if it's a tax that gets applied relatively flatly, then yeah it is regressive.

But, the $60 car tab is more regressive than any of those. The car tab that's the same whether you have a $500 15-year-old Subaru or a $100k Tesla is regressive as fuck. And you know it, AnonTroll.

Hey stupid fuck,
That infrastructure you mention is also the same infrastructure that busses and goods transportation use....its not just car infrastructure you twit. Busses are not infrastructure you mindless dweeb.

Im not asking bus riders to pay my gas tax or my car maintenance bills or my car licensing.....why the fuck should I pay for their bus fare?
@3 .1 percent of $50 would be 5 cents - not 50.

Yet another asshole who expects people better off than him to carry his ass through society.

fuck off. Your pos Subaru takes us the same space on the road as a tesla. ..therefore you pay the same amount.

the argument by those supporting progressive taxes is just for people who want everyone else to pay for them. Lazy dickheads.

Fuck you trash.
I wouldn't be surprised if there's something in the city charter preventing this, but why not have our property taxes pay for part of this?
Has anything else in the city budget been considered for a cut, with funds diverted to transit?
How about eliminating some tax breaks?
Spread the increases around a little.
@13 because we want people to ride the bus instead of drive, shitface. And the fare is getting raised, too.
Hey @38 - we live in a city with finite space. We need everybody to get to work, take care of their families, go shopping, etc, without everyone fucking driving all the time. Busses are indeed infrastructure, as are trains and the tracks they run on. In your water-laden brain you probably think it would be better if we shut down the Wa. State Ferry system, because anyone who wants to cross the sound should get their own boats.

God you have no concept of climate change, economies of scale, urban planning, regional economics, or anything else, do you, moron?

@43 fail with the ferries analogy. Ferries are considered an extension of the highway and road system..busses are not.

LMFAO @ climate change - Big fucking deal if the climate changes - I dont care. Its not the end of world like you chicken littles have been convinced it is.

I have far more of a clue than you can ever hope to have.

You sound like another gimmesomethingfornothing asshole who wants the rest of us to pay for your ride to work - fuck off, we ALREADY pay for your ass to ride the shithole bus next to the fucking bums and addict losers, now you want us to pay MORE? how about this: go eat a giant dick and choke on it.

Metro has broken promise after promise regarding tax increases and increased service...its all BS, and you limp dicks keep falling for it every time.