Our state legislators need to move immediately to allow us to vote in the Feb. 19 presidential primary without making a public declaration of party.
When the Legislature revised the primary for this year, it included the party declaration as public record.
The Legislature needs to move quickly, so each voter can choose one party without his or her choice’s being public record.
Primary voters will choose half of the state’s Republican delegates to the national nominating convention.
Democrats will choose all their delegates at party caucuses.
Some voters in the Feb. 19 primary may choose to vote only on the Republican side of the primary because that’s the side that counts. Others may choose to vote on the Democratic side to let the party know how it should have decided.
Either way, we ought to be able to vote in the primary without our party preferences’ being open to anyone putting together a mailing list.
Some argue that people ought to be willing to publicly declare themselves as Republican to be able to help choose a Republican nominee.
That is how most states do it. It is, however, far from Washington’s independent political tradition.
The sooner the Legislature acts, the more likely the law can change in time for February.
My tax agenda
Sales taxes are too high — 10 percent in parts of King County. They fall most on those least able to pay, and they’re frequently increased for new revenue. Let’s cut them in half by constitutional amendment.
Property taxes are too high, so high that people often can’t pay taxes on their homes of 30 years. Let’s cut them by 75 percent by constitutional amendment.
Business and occupation taxes discourage new business because they tax gross receipts rather than net profits, meaning that a business pays the tax even when it loses money. We should replace it with a net profits tax. That sounds like a state income tax, exactly what I propose.
Let’s amend the state constitution to allow a limited income tax.
The same amendment would put severe limits on property and sales taxes.
I would look at revenue for the current biennium, reduce the amount from property and sales taxes, and add an amount for an income tax.
The constitution would allow limited income taxes and set limits on both state and local property and sales taxes.
It would allow the state to raise any of the taxes but only if it reduces another tax by a comparable amount.
It would give us a tax system that takes more from those most able to pay.
Evan Smith is Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to him at entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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