Let’s say we used this system to choose Washington’s governor:
We let the people of Walla Walla County, with about one percent of the State’s population, make their choice. A week later, the people of Jefferson County on the Olympic Peninsula, with less than one-half percent of the state’s population, would vote.
After each of these states weigh in, a couple of candidates would be eliminated, and one or two candidates would be established as leaders.
Over the next two weeks, eight or nine counties would vote. Those contests would eliminate a couple of additional candidates and establish one as the presumed leader, all before the seven largest counties (King, Pierce, Snohomish, Spokane, Clark, Kitsap and Yakima) could vote.
Yet, that’s exactly how we are nominating candidates for president. Gen. Wesley Clark, Sen. Joseph Lieberman and Rep, Dick Gephart are out, and Sen. John Kerry is the presumed Democratic nominee without the seven largest states (California, Texas, New York, Florida, Illinois, Pennsylvania and Ohio) having voted. For all we know, Clark, Gephardt and Lieberman might have been strong candidates in the large states.
We elect state officials by holding a statewide primary and a statewide general election. We should elect the president by holding nationwide primaries, followed by the national general election.
And we should shorten the election season by holding the primaries in May or June.
Yes for schools, no for sales tax
We learned Monday that Gov. Gary Locke has stopped pushing the Legislature to put a referendum on the November ballot that would increase the sales tax by 1 percentage point to provide increased support for schools.
Instead, Locke will support an initiative by the League of Education Voters to bring about the same tax increase.
Our schools, from preschools through the universities, need more money. Teachers are underpaid and classes are too large. Just last year, the Legislature had to suspend voter-approved measures that would have provided for cost-of-living raises for public-school teachers and spent money to reduce class sizes.
I will support the measure only if it has a two- or three-year sunset.
Why? Our state depends too much on the sales tax. It’s already around 8 percent in most of Snohomish County and nearly 9 percent in most of King County. It’s a regressive tax that overtaxes the poor, who spend a higher portion of what they earn than others, and it’s unfair to everyone because it’s the only major form of tax that can’t be deducted on the federal income tax forms.
What’s happened in recent years is that, while we’ve eliminated the state motor-vehicle excise tax and limited property taxes, we’ve depended more and more on the sales tax.
It’s time for Washington state to bite the bullet and adopt a constitutionally limited state income tax, combined with a limit on the sales tax (3 or 4 percent for the state and 1 or 2 percent for local government), use of the property tax only for approved local levies and bond issues, elimination of the regressive business-and-occupation tax and use of the motor-vehicle excise tax when approved for local projects like the monorail only on the value of vehicles in excess of average automobile value.
A two- or three-year sunset on a sales-tax increase would give the Legislature time to adopt these reforms, many of which were part of a proposal made more than a year ago by a commission headed by William Gates Sr.
We’d like to know what you think. If you have a comment send it to
The Enterprise
P.O. Box 977
Lynnwood, Wash. 98036
E-mail: entopinion@heraldnet.com
Fax: 425-774-8622
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor.
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