MSN: Starting June 1, you’ll have to pay sales tax if you buy candy or gum in Washington state. Local taxes vary, but in Seattle, for example, that’s 9.5 cents more on a $1 candy bar.

It’s only 9.5 cents right now – there’s another effort to raise the sales tax to 9.7%.

What stands out here is the comment from the guy in eastern WA: he points out that the majority of the tax money goes to Olympia and Seattle – in all honesty, that’s also where the majority of the taxes come from – but he asks “Why don’t our government leaders take a pay cut to help out?” It’s a valid question but does cutting back on the spending (and salary) of one government match the same amount of money that will come from 6,664,195 taking more money out of their pockets in taxes? Salary won’t but it would be nice to see; spending is absolutely the thing that needs to get cut, but it won’t… at least not in WA state. We’ll be at 10% before the end of 2011 and still wondering where all the money went. We won’t have a solution for the Alaskan Way Viaduct or a solution for SR520. No progress on light rail to the Eastside. Bunch of new parks and at least four new ways to increase recycling, I’m sure, but even that won’t be tangible…

Makes me think I should have bookmarked the “our government is losing touch with the populous a little more each day” article I saw flitter by this morning…

Over the last year or so I’ve been watching both the Seattle and Washington government with a muted interest. OK, maybe it’s less than muted given my blog posts, Facebook comments, and general flailing of arms when talking about this in person. But still: I’ve been watching WA law makers quietly work their way to a statewide income tax and they’re actually quite close now. And it won’t be like CT, where the sales tax dropped as the income tax was added – no, I expect WA wants to ask for money with two hands, rather than one. What’s even more important is that they’ve got tree hugging citizens that are applauding them for it.

Sad, really.
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Our restaurant sales tax is now an even 10% – this includes coffee purchases even if you don’t drink it there…

Anyone feel like sneaking into Elliott Bay and tossing cases of Starbucks beans into the harbor? It’s worked before… maybe it will work again. Either that or a nice public outing of everyone in Olympia or King County that worked to get this passed and then start a paper trail to see where the money is going. I bet you anything that it’s going to fund some park project in Seattle or Renton… because nothing helps a recession more than adding a 10% surcharge to western Washington’s most often purchased and already overpriced items and laying down new sod.

By far and wide: this is unconscionable.