Yellow, Webbed Feet, Quacks? Ducks and Redistribution of Wealth

During the push of getting a budget out, Washington's legislators need to go outside and walk around the lake. I did decades ago as a member of the budget committee. I did it to think about what an old-timer had told me. He was a very conservative Democratic old-timer from Eastern Washington. I was young and he was old and he suggested I see government for what it really is.

The entire state government really, very simply, is the redistribution of the state’s wealth so the policymakers can pay for their programs. The programs, well intended, vary widely from state-to-state, and nothing says one is better than the other. There never will be enough money for those who think “the state” should levelize socioeconomic status. What they need to level is opportunity.

What has put the whole thing on steroids lately is, of course, the recession, and the fact that workers who toil to provide these levelizing programs are legally organized as full-blown bargaining units. Redistribution now has allies, advocates and partners like it never has in the past. Passion and caring used to drive a big part of the budget. Now we add pocketbook and membership issues.

None of it is illegal, none of it is wrong, and if members can get re-elected, none of it lacks support.

But let’s don’t kid ourselves or others. Washington state’s government, like most others, is merely a collection of services paid for by money taken from the people.

It is colorful and fascinating how we wrap it up in all sorts of packages. It is called an “investment.” Sometimes it’s “revenue-enhancement financing.”  It is seldom referred to as “taxes” or “tax increases.” 

And the raisers of these taxes don’t look at the long-term impact. Like --What does a one percent increase in a sales tax do to a struggling, working family of four making about $35,000 a year? What would removing the initiative-placed sales tax deduction on car trade-ins do to local retailers who are already underwater? (In some cities, the taxes collected and paid by auto dealers are their largest sources of income.)

So, yes, it’s war without bullets, and at times it’s a feeding frenzy, but it is plain and simple – a redistribution of wealth.