Carlyle bill raises millions in new revenue without new taxes! Seahawks, Mariners, Sounders fans celebrate!
Today, I proudly announce that I will be introducing bold legislation in the 2010 legislative session that is the ultimate win-win: The bill raises millions in new state revenues without increasing taxes while also ensuring unparalleled success for all Seattle sports teams.
The bill requires that any professional (or public university sports) team that receives any public subsidy is hereby required to have a winning season each year or their subsidy will be withdrawn.
This move is guaranteed to lead to victory and sports fans throughout the 36th Legislative District, Seattle and our state will rejoice! Taxpayers, meanwhile, benefit from the incremental sales on concessions, ticket admissions, parking fees and other normal charges and no one will mind paying the cost.
I can’t believe I didn’t think of this sooner!
Your partner in service,
Reuven.
PS. Given how serious and somber everyone is about the budget, maybe I should introduce this bill for real.
This idea is useless and phony. It will do nothing to for the homeless that live in our streets. It will do nothing for the jobless. It will do nothing for the people who can’t pay their rent, and the so called professional athletes that are paid millions of dollars will laugh all the way to the bank.
Carlyle’s fear of raising taxes only highlights his ties to Corporate America. A progressive income tax in Washington State is long overdue. It’s time for Carlyle to man up and do what is right for all the people of Washington State not just his buddies at the office.
Well, so goes an attempt at a little lighthearted joke!
Reuven.
O.K., you got me. I got lazy and didn’t read the P.S. I had just read another one of your center-right monologues that you’ve been posting on the Ballard Blog and was already hot under the collar. So here goes another shot.
Dear Sir,
Out sourcing the commons (that which belongs to all the citizens of Washington State), is not the answer to the states (as in, we the people) problems. There is no task that the State of Washington currently performs, that in your words, “the private sector can provide more efficiently.” This simply is not true. It is an old lie told by rightist. We’ve heard this Neo-Liberal (classicial econs) rhetoric for the last thirty years (remember Reagan, I do) and we’re sick of it! “Embrace(ing) the opportunity of this crisis” to inflict more “disaster capitalism” on the people of Washington will only deepen the misery of those same people. In short, the rich will get richer, and the poor will get poorer.
You say that, “it is widely recognized that we have one of the most unfair, unjust and wildly inefficient tax structures in the nation,” and this is true only because the State of Washington is constantly blackmailed into lowering taxes for and/or paying for the externalized cost of companies like Boeing, Mircosoft, the Seahawks, etc., etc, etc.
How many times has Boeing threaten to leave if WE THE PEOPLE didn’t pay up? Do you know the history of how Paine Field was built? The real perversion of this is that Boeing would die a quick death if not for Defense contracts that we pay for through our tax dollars. When the government (that’s you guys that the rest of us elect) knuckles under to these corporations it has no choice but to go to small businesses and individuals for tax revenue, and yes, this is truly unfair.
And how many sports stadium have been built on the tax payers dim because one team or the other threaten to leave?
I’m of the opinion that Washington State would be better off if the Mariners, Seahawks, Boeing, Microsoft and any other corporation that uses blackmail (in the form of job losses) would packed up and leave the state. The state (as in all of us, not just you guys in government) could stop paying the externalized cost of these corporations and get down to building an economy based on small local loyal and sustainable businesses.
So, as I said, I was already hot under the collar when I read your attempt at humor. It’s just that your “joke” sounds like something a center-right Politian would really come up with!
And this is why I was insulted. The problem isn’t the threat to take away their subsidy. The problem is that the threat is empty! The problem is that you shouldn’t even threaten it. You should just do it!
Here, here.
I don’t see what’s funny about this?
Economic Fascism is all the rage.
Why stop at ballparks?
Let’s get this done, Reuven.
“Refuse to Lose” is the New Capitalism.