Tom McCabe is president of the Freedom Foundation.
Anyone who claims to have been shocked by the Washington State Supreme Court’s decision on March 24 to defy the state constitution and the will of the people by overturning a lower court ruling and resurrecting the state’s capital gains tax is either hopelessly naïve, lying, or oblivious to how things work around here.
The court is packed with left-wing zealots hand-picked by the government employee unions that have run this state for more than two decades. These powerful, well-financed special interests control the executive, legislative, and the judicial branches of Washington, to say nothing of their near-total domination of the unelected bureaucracy.
Like the leftist front organization they are, the unions’ ultimate aim is to saddle Washingtonians with an income tax — in addition to, rather than in lieu of, the state’s outrageous sales and property taxes. But since the state constitution unequivocally prohibits doing so, they hatched a scheme to impose a tax on capital gains (which the courts have always classified as “income”) and label it an “excise” tax.
Their deceit couldn’t have been more obvious, but what difference do rules make in a rigged game?
Justice Debra Stephens, who wrote the majority opinion, betrayed her commitment to social engineering rather than the law by asserting:
“Washington’s tax system has earned the regrettable title of most regressive in the nation. Washington’s upside-down tax system perpetuates systemic racism by placing a disproportionate tax burden on Black, indigenous, and people of color.”
The venerable Wall Street Journal retorted:
“Are you kidding? The justices whose sworn duty is to uphold and follow the state constitution sign onto an opinion that denounces the document as racist? The justices are also effectively calling the people of Washington racist because voters have rejected an income tax 10 times, including six proposed constitutional amendments and four ballot measures. When progressives can’t get a policy past the voters, they always resort to the courts, which are their backstop legislature.”
Spot on. Union leaders were so confident of victory they even had their puppet Attorney General Bob Ferguson ask the court for permission to collect the income tax while the case was still pending.
Obediently, the court agreed.
Jay Inslee, Washington’s feckless governor, laughed off fears the new tax presages an income tax as a Republican “boogeyman.”
He’s lying.
The capital gains tax is merely the first step for these greedy jackals. They’ll never be satisfied. They could confiscate every dollar earned by Washingtonians and it wouldn’t be enough.
How long before they announce the seven percent capital gains tax on so-called “wealthy” people will raise only a fraction of what was promised because people will find ways to shelter their earnings or, more likely, simply move out of state rather than hand over their hard-earned dollars?
Before long, seven percent will become 20 or 30, and the threshold will be lowered to the point where everyone pays it. What else would you expect to happen once the camel gets its nose under the tent?
And don’t put much faith in talk about a ballot initiative to overturn the court’s ruling. As they’ve done repeatedly over the years, voters would likely approve such a measure (after a grueling campaign battle), but who ultimately decides whether an initiative is constitutional?
The same Washington State Supreme Court and the same justices who just demonstrated they don’t give a damn about the law or the majority.
What about an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court? This is an option. The Freedom Foundation has some brilliant attorneys who contend the capital gains tax violated the Commerce Clause of the U.S. Constitution because Washingtonians will now be taxed for capital gains earned in other states.
Because government unions don’t presently control SCOTUS, we’d receive a fair, impartial hearing. Unfortunately, since the court considers less than one percent of the cases appealed to it, there’s no guarantee even an injustice as egregious as this would be redressed.
The real solution is competition when seats on the state Supreme Court are decided. Three of the nine sitting justices were on the ballot this past November, and all three ran unopposed.
All three also voted for an income tax. Had they been defeated — or at least been made to believe voters were watching their actions — the ruling would have been much closer, if not a triumph for someone other than the lawless left.
An attorney who worked for me for years before returning to his home state of Wisconsin (where he became deputy attorney general) once noted how easy Washington Supreme Court justices have it. Once elected, they serve virtually for life because they’re never challenged.
They have absolutely no accountability. They never face the voters to defend rulings like imposing an income tax, releasing murderers from prison, or gutting the state’s public disclosure laws.
Years ago, in another life, I implemented a plan to make elections for Supreme Court Justices competitive. We found good candidates (very difficult), financed their campaigns (not so difficult), and got some moderates elected to the court.
For a shining moment in time, cases came to the court and the fix wasn’t in.
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