A RESOLUTION opposing Washington Initiative Measure 1366 and urging Seattle voters to vote “no” on Initiative 1366 on the November 3, 2015 general election ballot.
Agenda item one, resolution 31623. Opposing Washington initiative measure 1366 and urging Seattle voters to vote no on Initiative 1366 on the November 3rd, 2015 General Election Ballot Introduced October 12th, 2015. Thank you. I move to adopt resolution 31623. It's moved in second. And if the resolution be adopted, we will now hear comments from council members in support of this resolution. Are there any comments? This resolution is on the November 3rd general election ballot. It is somewhat complicated, but it is a resolution that would mandate that the state legislature take action on tax matters or impose a two thirds majority vote requirement. This, if adopted, this initiative could cost the taxpayers of Washington State up to $8 billion over the next six years, primarily for funding of education and other essential services. It would block reform of our tax system, which is one of the most regressive in the United States. The initiative is opposed by both Democrats and Republicans in the state of Washington. And by adopting this resolution, we urge the voters of Seattle to oppose Initiative 1366. Are there any other comments from council members? Council members who want. Thank you, Brian Burgess. Just to make it clear, a vote of yes on this resolution is would be advocating for no on the statewide initiative. I strongly support this resolution. The initiative would set unnecessary restrictions on new taxes. These restrictions are particularly problematic because of the existing tax structure in the state, which is the most progressive in the nation, and particularly the fact that the sales tax, which is at the moment the backbone of tax revenues in the state. Taxes, poor and working class people far more than rich people and corporations. In this initiative, there are even exemptions to the sales tax specially built in for corporations. For example, there is an exemption for chemical fertilizer and an exemption for jet fuel. I mean, what regular person is buying massive amounts of jet fuel? Boeing buys jet fuel. I doubt if any of us has ever bought jet fuel. I mean, if you own an aircraft, maybe you do. So this initiative is really designed to stop us from beginning to shift the tax burden off the backs of regular people and onto the super rich and big business. And I fully support a council resolution objecting to that and urging voters to reject the initiative. It also should be added, though, that our state legislature, regardless of which major political party establishment has been in control of it, has totally failed to pass progressive taxation measures even without this outrageous restriction going forward. So we should oppose this restriction because we should oppose further hurdles being put in the way of taxing the wealthy. But we should not let current lawmakers off the hook for their failure to act so far. And the best way to do it is to hold city officials accountable so that we can push for every possible progressive revenue option at the city level to push on the state. And let's all oppose this Dim Omen initiative. Thank you. We'll now hear comments from council members in opposition to the resolution. Are there any comments? We will take comments from the public. Now I wish to speak in opposition or support of the resolution. How much time? We'll take comments for 6 minutes. Speakers will alternate between opponents and proponents of the resolution until the 6 minutes have expired. We'll begin with someone in favor of the resolution. Paula Revere. Hi. Thanks again for a chance to speak. These initiatives are look like random moneymaking schemes. They really aren't. This is a way of really strangling the legislature. And we've already been strangled with that income tax, which I could show someone listen long enough that the people in the state of Washington want an income tax. There are certain millionaires that don't. And there are other states that support that same nonsense. So we have to live on very little money in this state, and it's constantly being squeezed every legislative session. And now we'll be losing our schools eventually. If you look at Chicago and Detroit and have charter schools and basically it's it's a way of starving the life out of representative government. Which takes us back to the Treaty of Verona, November 22nd, 1822. They celebrated on the day that President Kennedy was killed because he fought the most representative government when he impeached the Federal Reserve and issued silver certificates and silver dollars. So Tim, I'm in is definitely an enemy in that respect. The problem is that people don't get the whole story and they may vote for it just because it doesn't look like a big deal. And that's a shame. With my 37 seconds left, I wanted to share with you that the person that runs the TPP, Mr. from is the same person who started the Democratic Leadership Council out of Arkansas and brought in Mr. Clinton, who was not a Democrat and brought him into running for election. And he's the one that signed Douma and he's also the one that did the Crime Act, and he's also the one that killed the Commerce Protection Act, and he's also the one that killed the Steagall Act. So keep your eyes open and don't let your memory forget what's really been happening. Thank you. In order to get more speakers and we're going to shift to one minute of comment in opposition to the resolution. Paul W lock. Paul W Lock. We should do anything we can to restrict giving you more money to spend. Absolutely. We're not getting anything of value. Creating a bureaucracy. That's nothing yourself. Fancy salaries, staffs, you name it. It could go through. It could be a two thirds vote. To raise taxes. We can't afford it. But the majority of the population in this city living off the rest of us. It just running out of people to pay the bills. In California, the richest man moved to Australia. Help them. Billions of dollars in income came into them. People want money. There's been things that make things better. You're still applying. Thank you. In favor of the resolution. Good space guy. Good dog ish, I say. Good space guy. And this initiative from Tim Iman. Tim Iman is one of good space guys heroes. So I have a lot of role models. Tim Iman is one of them. Third State Initiative Measure 1366 has the potential of lowering the sales tax from six and a half percent to five and a half percent. This would be very good if you support the exchange economy, the capitalistic, free market exchange economy that makes the customer the king. So when you tax something, you decrease it. So by having a high sales tax, we decrease the exchange economy. People decide, well, I am not going to be involved in exchange economy. I'm going to do things myself or I'm going to abstain. But if we put low taxes on the exchange economy. New York Times. You actually signed up on the wrong sheet. So is there anyone who wants to speak in favor of the council's resolution? Yes. Are you Sarah? Great. Sheet as well. Good afternoon, council members. Thank you for your resolution. Encouraging a no on initiative 1366. My name is Sarah Kessler with Fuze, Washington, representing the broad bipartisan Coalition of Leaders Opposing Initiative. 1366. 1366 is the latest attempt by Tim Simon and his corporate backers to force state lawmakers into passing a constitutional amendment that would lock into place a two thirds majority to raise revenue or close unnecessary tax loopholes. If both the Washington State House and Senate do not comply with Iman's demanded constitutional amendment 1366 could cut about $8 billion from our state's education, emergency services, parks and everything else. That makes our state a great place to live. This proposal is a lose lose for Washington. Either we cut billions of dollars from education or we permanently lock into place our state's upside down, regressive tax system. And closing our state's constitution is not a toy to play with. 1366 is so flawed it will likely be found unconstitutional. Thank you. Thank you. Our last speaker will be lacrosse. A green. I'm glad I didn't prepare a two minute speech, but I don't have anyone either. I come here to ask your consideration. I don't appreciate somebody telling me how to vote. And when you gang up as a bloc and wanting us to vote one way or the other, you are saying that you have better judgment than the rest of us. You don't tell a grown adult what to do. You may ask are you may suggest. But you can't tell them what to do. I don't appreciate you doing this. And also, I don't appreciate you coming up here and saying at Black Lives Matters when you're here supporting killing unborn children. There's something wrong here. And I would appreciate you considering that. Thank you. We'll now vote on resolution 31623, which opposes state initiative 1366. Those in favor of adopting the resolution vote i. I. Those opposed vote no. The resolution is unanimously adopted in the chair will sign it. The report of the Transportation Committee. Please read item number two.