Pulling the lever to tax the 1% is about as satisfying as voting gets. In three states next week, voters can thank teachers and other unions for giving them the opportunity.
California’s tax on the rich is due for an extension. Four years ago voters approved a compromise that combined a Teachers-led effort for a millionaires tax with a sales tax the governor was peddling.
Now union members are out knocking on doors for Proposition 55, which would continue the tax on high-income Californians — and ditch the sales tax increase.
An initiative in Oregon would add a 2.5 percent tax on corporations whose annual sales top $25 million — generating $6 billion for public schools, health care, and senior care. The coalition for Measure 97 includes teachers, health care workers, and transit workers.
And in Maine, another union-backed measure would put a 3 percent tax on incomes over $200,000, earmarking the funds for education.
Crocodile Tears
As usual, corporate cash is flooding in to oppose these initiatives. Walmart, Albertsons, and Allstate paint them as taxes on the little guy.
They’re calling Oregon’s measure an attack on small businesses (the tax won’t hit them) and on consumers, who will supposedly suffer trickle-down price increases.
Voters should be skeptical any time big business suddenly takes an interest in saving us money. It’s the same in a union drive, when the bosses cry crocodile tears over all the dues we’ll have to pay. They’re thinking of their own bottom line.
In California, the Chamber of Commerce is warning that the wealthy will sell their homes and businesses and move to Nevada. The horror! The fear-mongering is especially far-fetched since the proposition would renew a tax that’s already in effect. Far from inflicting economic disaster, the revenue boost has revived public schools and colleges after years of cuts, layoffs, and furloughs.
More funding is needed — and it needs to go to the right places. In the Los Angeles and San Francisco schools, unions…