{"id":542261,"date":"2010-04-23T16:57:18","date_gmt":"2010-04-23T20:57:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/seattletimes.nwsource.com\/html\/northwestvoices\/2011687487_makingmorethan400000ayearpayupgatessrurges.html?syndication=rss"},"modified":"2010-04-23T16:57:18","modified_gmt":"2010-04-23T20:57:18","slug":"making-more-than-400000-a-year-pay-up-gates-sr-urges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/542261","title":{"rendered":"Making more than $400,000 a year? Pay up, Gates Sr. urges"},"content":{"rendered":"

Think about merit-based tax breaks<\/strong><\/p>\n

The recent focus on taxing and punishing the \u201crich\u201d is becoming absurd. [\u201cGates Sr. pushes for state income tax on wealthy,\u201d page one, April 21.]<\/p>\n

I was raised poor and believed that hard work, an education and looking for ways to serve rather than be served would get me ahead.<\/p>\n

I would like to propose a tax plan based on the fact that we get more of whatever behavior we reward. It starts with a 50 percent income tax rate for everyone on every dollar, regardless of the source; investments, wages, tips, unemployment and insurance \u2014 they are all the same.<\/p>\n

From 50 percent, we start reducing tax liability based on what individuals have done that is good for our society. High-school graduates shed a few percent. College graduates drop another couple of points for each successive degree. People buying a home have more points eliminated, and more when the house is paid off.<\/p>\n

A great credit score should earn a rate reduction, as would owning a business that employs people and having a clean police record. Necessary and noble professions such as teachers and military would are also see a rate reduction.<\/p>\n

There must be incentives for living in a way that is a benefit to society rather than a burden, a model where education, hard work, and staying out of trouble are rewarded.<\/p>\n

There will always be people who need help improving their lot in life and they should be assisted to make the transition from a high tax life to a life that is less taxing on everyone \u2014including themselves.<\/p>\n

\u2014 Matt Jackson, Mukilteo<\/em><\/p>\n

\u2018Make it easy to rope a bull, it\u2019s no problem to rope a calf\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

Well we\u2019re at it again: A new attempt at a state income tax is being foisted on the public.<\/p>\n

My father told me a story one time when I was a teenager about a conversation he had with his father when he was a teenager. Congress was passing the 16th Amendment, the Income Tax Law.<\/p>\n

He told his father: \u201cI don\u2019t see anything wrong with it, it is only going to tax those rich people making over $5,000 a year.\u201d<\/p>\n

At that time, the average yearly income for most working people was less than $500 or $600 a year. His father looked at him, smiled, and said, \u201cIf you make it easy to rope a bull, it\u2019s no problem to rope a calf.\u201d The 16th Amendment was ratified Feb. 3, 1913.<\/p>\n

How long after passage of this bill in Olympia will it take to lower the level at which the tax is applied to the rest of us?<\/p>\n

\u2014 Ernest Altice, Ellensburg<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Think about merit-based tax breaks The recent focus on taxing and punishing the \u201crich\u201d is becoming absurd. [\u201cGates Sr. pushes for state income tax on wealthy,\u201d page one, April 21.] I was raised poor and believed that hard work, an education and looking for ways to serve rather than be served would get me ahead. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2861,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-542261","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542261","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2861"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=542261"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/542261\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=542261"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=542261"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=542261"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}