Results tagged “taxes”

When we first read the headline "1 in 3 Americans likes to nap" in the Seattle Times, we initially thought, Sweet, we can do an Times Op-Ed board joke! But then fate--well, Publicola--provided us with better napping evidence.

Publicola is feeling grim about the legislative session's taxes vs. deficit paralysis, and boils down the basics with a look at Rep. Eric Pettigrew’s (D-37, S. Seattle) sales tax bill. It called for an increase of three-tenths of a percent, and Publicola says its failure—"with a $13 million cut to children’s health care, a $75 million cut to low-income care for hospitals, a $28 million cut to mental health care among other cuts—defines the 2009 session."

The fellas Jim, Johnny, and José must be shaking their heads as the House passed a bill to increase liquor (wine and beer) license fees for Washington's restaurants, bars, taverns, and even trains. The booze business, is one of the few industries that is somewhat recession proof, which can be very attractive for a state that is $9 billion in the hole. Pending final approval, the bill would raise fees (and probably drink prices) nearly 10 percent, making it even harder for the local "little guys" to hang on.

• Don't play with fire, the Washington DNR said so. So there.
• Capitol Hill has pretty trees and presumably, pretty bad allergies now. Yay, Spring!
• A case of guilt by association: Seattle rapper Fatal Lucciauno, pulled from The Crocodile's April line-up.

Do you prefer one or two lumps of conservative sugar with your tea? Today, around the nation, conservatives are joining together for the Tax Day Tea Party, (TEA stands for "Taxed Enough Already") to protest the government's spending and tax motives. Naturally, Seattle (and many other Washington cities) will be holding myriad tea party rallies throughout the day. While the group of conservative Seattle bloggers, who claim to have ignited the new "revolution" nationwide, will be drawing crowds (and singing tax songs!) in Olympia.

Tomorrow's the big day, so hopefully you're all done by now with your W-2s and 1099s and itemizing every single receipt from the past year. If not, get on that already. Once you're done, you can bask in the sweet rewards that Tax Day brings. No, not your refund, we mean fish tacos and sex toys, of course. (And yes, that's what she said.) Tomorrow, Babeland will be handing out a free Gold Digger Jr. vibrator to the first 100 people in the door who can prove that they have filed their taxes. Additionally, 10% off any instore purchases. Meanwhile, Taco Del Mar is offering up a free taco to anyone who goes to their website and fills out the form to get a coupon via email. YOU'RE WELCOME.

Kim might go to some shows at the Triple Door this weekend: Robyn Hitchcock on Saturday and Eleni Mandell on Sunday. Or she might go see Lushy on Saturday at the Skylark. Or she might just take some very long bike rides and spend the evenings recouping. Tomorrow and the next day are anyone's guess. Tonight, however, she'll be playing her own music for free at Trabant in the U-District, and yall should come.

The news today that the state budget crisis is than originally projected is like one of those expensive studies you read about that finds a wholly predictable result, such as that pretty people get helped more when they fall down or that women in bikinis lead straight men to make stupid choices. It's a giant collective "duh" moment, where our fearless politicos in Olympia finally come out and admit the reality that existed a few months ago but is finally "official," even though everyone with half a brain and a moderate attention span knew it then, much as they know things are going to continue getting worse.

Our state House of Representatives has passed HB 1906, known by its sexier title, the Economic Security Act of 2009. The bill will temporarily increase unemployment benefits by $45 a week, and jacks the minimum benefit from $129 per week to $155. Out of curiosity, who thinks they can get by on $620 per month? Fun fact courtesy of Chuck Taylor: a back of the envelope calculation puts Seattle's unemployment rate at 15 percent, double the state rate. We also agree that taxing UI benefits is cruel and unusual punishment.

[ED. NOTE: Seattle Transit Blog strongly disagrees with Brad's characterization of their conclusions. They did some back-of-the-envelope figuring based on Brad's premise, with the intent of downsizing his initial estimate of the possible tax error. They are not interested, apparently, in the looking into the situation further: "But a figure in the low tens of millions of dollars is serious money, enough to do a freeway ramp or other practical project. I’d rather use that money to build a project they participated in the vote for than attempt to reconstruct 12 years of purchase records."]

We love the bus. We ride it whenever we can. We try to convince our friends, family, and neighbors to ride the bus. We even offered favors to our girlfriend if she would start riding the 41 from her Northgate crib to her downtown office. (She declined; we broke up. Draw your own conclusions.)

City of Seattle Proposition 1: Seattle Prop. 1 would enact a six-year levy to raise money to do some much-needed safety maintenance on the Pike Place Market. Pretty much everyone in town supports the levy. With uncharacteristically weird grammar, the Times says, "It's not fun or fancy improvements, but you have to do it."

There are two weeks until Election Day, and two issues in our state's gubernatorial race (three if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand.

There are 10 weeks until Election Day, and 10 issues in our state's gubernatorial race (11 if you count Eastern Washington's concerns). Each week we'll be taking an award-winning look at where the candidates stand.

The Seattle City Council has overwhelmingly passed a measure to charge a 20-cent fee for every disposable bag--paper or plastic--starting January 1st, 2009. Yesterday, the council voted 6-1 in favor of the bag fee and to ban plastic foam food and drink containers.

The state is trying to figure out just how much you'd be willing to pay to cross the Evergreen Point Floating Bridge without being deterred by the cost to change your route. According to a study released yesterday, most drivers would continue to use the bridge, even in the face of fees up to $6.85 per roundtrip. Apparently, the state believes if you have a job on the Eastside, adding nearly $40 to your weekly commute—plus the ever-increasing cost of gas—is no big deal financially. The proposed tolls would vary throughout the day based on traffic volume—from $2.15 during lighter times to a $3.80 one-way fee during peak hours. Tolls on 520 could begin as early as 2010. Similar tolls are also being discussed for I-90, Seattle's other floating bridge. The tolls would go to funding a new six-lane replacement bridge for 520.

Everything! We wrote that to be glib, but then realized it's painfully true. Every day that passes, the prices seem to rise on everything imaginable—from groceries to gasoline. The cost is only going up. At midnight tonight, when a slew of new Washington laws go into effect, we can add several new items to the "more expensive than ever before" list.

New York recently passed a state budget that requires Amazon.com (and other online retailers) to start collecting NY state sales tax. Amazon doesn't have any brick-and-mortar presence there, but NY argues that because Amazon has affiliates in the state, the company is obligated to start collecting the sales tax on purchases made there.

Today's your last day to do them! Get that Federal Rebate and stimulate the economy or do like Seattlest is planning to and pay some bills!

When we first heard about the extra tax being levied on car-sharing companies like Flexcar in September, we were pretty incensed, as were many other one-car households. Sounds like the folks down in Oly may have actually heard our cries. The PI reports this morning that:

The New York Times reports that our esteemed politicians have agreed on "an economic stimulus package", which sounds pretty high-falutin', but it basically amounts to cutting everyone in America a check.

, columnist Joel Connelly blithely goes along with the argument that if Prop. 1--the tax-heavy plan to breathe funding-life into the Regional Transportation Improvement District (RTID)--fails, the entire region will continue tottering along to complete and total transportation infrastructure collapse.

It's rainy which means it's fall, which means there's an election coming, which means that Seattle is all bound up in a transportation quagmire, which means it's time to devote millions of words to the problem and then eventually do nothing.

Famous neo-fro advocate Steven Pinker drops in at Town Hall tomorrow night, 7:30pm. Tickets are just $5. He'll be flogging his new book, The Stuff of Thought. Stuff? What's next, the Lintball of Thought?

As of this morning, queer couples in the state of Washington have about three new rights, which include, but are not limited to:

There was a lot of talk on the blogs last week about newly-released census data that highlighted the 23% of Washington residents that get to work by means other than riding in a car alone. Seattle is in the top ten US cities in walking to work, taking the bus to work and biking to work (although not in carpooling) all of which are impressive and encouraging. There is an element of spin to all that fantastic news, of course, and the fact remains that 77% of us still drive to work alone.

Syd Abrams spent a quarter century as a lobbyist for the California Wine Institute, monitoring wine-related legislation in 12 western states until he was forced out two years ago, at age 78. All along, he's also been a partner in eastern Washington's pioneering, 800-acre Sagemoor Vineyards, the largest independent grape grower in the state.

This week we'd like to congratulate the -ist network's Mother Hen, Gothamist's Jen Chung, who found herself a recipient of Wired Magazine's Wired Rave Award. If that doesn't sound terribly exciting, keep in mind another recipient was J.K. Rowling. Yep, that's right, the -ist network and Harry Potter now have something in common. Go us.

Now, you're going to be hearing a lot about ex-Port Chief Mic Dinsmore getting a severance package from the Port of Seattle for retiring with a $107,000/yr pension to go to work for a hedge fund. You may hear that none of the Port commissioners but Pat Davis remembers they all agreed that, you know, it'd be a nice gesture to send Dinsmore off with an "extra" $339,841. Rainy day fund, kinda.

The financing bill that would pay for a new Sonics arena in Renton will be changing a bit in hopes that House Speaker Frank Chopp will actually read the thing.