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Wouldn’t it be nice to have enough money to buy a ballot initiative that would get you out of paying taxes? Brian Heywood had that much extra cash lying around.
Heywood is a transplanted hedge fund mogul from California who, last year, plunked down more than $6 million to fund signature gathering operations to put six initiatives on the ballot.
One of those measures would repeal Washington’s new capital gains tax. Our state has long had one of the most regressive taxation regimes in the country. The capital gains tax is an attempt to shift the tax burden away from those least able to pay toward those who have been handsomely rewarded by Washington’s booming economy. Heywood says he has not had to pay a dime, so far, in capital gains taxes, he just wants “to fix stupid things.”
Among the “stupid things” another of his initiatives would eliminate is Gov. Jay Inslee’s signature climate change legislation that aims to face up to a global crisis by shouldering the costs of reducing carbon emissions. Among those costs is higher-priced gasoline (a factor Inslee seems to have fudged in selling his plan). Probably more than anything else, the boosted price voters pay at the pump is likely to drive even many liberals to vote yes to at least that one of Heywood’s initiatives.
Heywood is an Ayn Rand-admiring libertarian. He likely does not care that, if he achieves success at the ballot box, billions of dollars would be taken away from public education, clean energy programs, transportation projects and health care. Like Atlas, he would just shrug.
See more of David Horsey’s cartoons at: st.news/davidhorsey
View other syndicated cartoonists at: st.news/cartoons
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