Ideally, the U.S. public is supposed to be able to comment on government policy proceedings, and the government is supposed to listen to that input.
Of course, it doesn’t really work that way: For years we’ve noted how U.S. regulatory comment proceedings are full of bots and fake comments from industries trying to game regulators, and make shitty policy (giant mergers, mindless deregulation, the elimination of consumer protection) seem like it has broad public support (remember when dead people opposed net neutrality?).
Unsurprisingly the U.S. hasn’t done anything to seriously rein in this problem. And when officials do act, it tends to be largely toothless, resulting in the problem getting steadily worse.
And that was before AI made it significantly easier for bad actors to quickly automate this sort of gamesmanship. Washington State has been exploring the RADICAL SOCIALIST ANTIFA EXTREMIST idea of having the state’s rich actually pay their taxes. That’s not been received particularly well by the extraction class, which has been making empty promises about leaving the state.
We later get this tidbit:
“More than 60,000 people signed in against SB 6346 when it received a rushed hearing in the Senate,” Sen. John Braun, R-Centralia, said in a Feb. 16 statement. “That is so impressive that Democrats have tried to say bots are responsible, even though the Legislature blocks bots.”
Centralia? That’s the equivalent of flyover country along I-5. (I have driven through Centralia numerous times but never found any reason to stop … it’s basically Chehalis.)
Washington’s approach to taxes are interesting.
There’s the wildly controversial long-term care tax, which might be the only income tax in the state. It’s a relatively small tax (less than 1%), but the benefit is if you continuously live in-state for 10 years and pay the tax, you can get a year of long-term care. Except there are a few issues: the payout and requirements are worse than LTC insurance, the tax was optional for those who were here during the opt-out period and had LTC insurance, and everyone who made any significant amount of income (enough that the tax was more expensive than private insurance) opted out during that period. It’s essentially taxing only the people who couldn’t afford LTC insurance, though it at least might give them LTC coverage I guess.
Then, there’s a capital gains tax. If you have more than ~$250k in capital gains in a year, you pay 7% tax on the excess. The amount goes up to nearly 10% on capital gains exceeding $1m I believe.
Finally, you have a new “luxury motor tax” that began this year. For vehicles that exceed a sale price of $100k, you pay an 8% tax on the amount that exceeds it in addition to regular sales tax.
The state has been making attempts to implement new taxes over time seemingly with the goal of taxing those with the means to pay them rather than those without it, at least when it comes to the capital gains and luxury motor tax. As controversial as the LTC tax is, it’s a relatively tiny tax, and does directly benefit long term residents of the state at least.
I am always in favor of these kinds of taxes. The tax in question, as currently written, only affects people with an annual adjusted gross income exceeding $1m, which is a number I can’t even imagine making in a year. These kinds of taxes do not tax the average person, and this tax doesn’t even tax people with the top 5% of income.
I would find it incredibly hard to believe any significant part of the state would oppose such a tax. Those who claim to are, as far as I can tell, either bots, live in an echo chamber, or are against their own self interest. Or they’re incredibly wealthy, in which case I don’t care what they think.
I can’t imagine this new tax would hit much more than 60,000 people (sure, MS minted a lot of millionaires back in the day …), so every single one of them had an assistant go online?
Colour me sceptical.