Today on the Bryan Suits show, a potential topic is would you give up your right to vote if by doing so you did not have to pay any federal tax?
I have already submitted my answer:
This is as big of a no brainer as they come. I live inside the Seattle city limits, see here:
http://andrews-dad.blogspot.com/2006/11/frustration-of-voting-in-seattle-i.html
my vote is "counted" by King County elections. It is not like I am paying many many tens of thousands of dollars in federal taxes... yet, but it is not like my vote is really worth all that much. What potential competitive races am I voting on? Initiatives and the President once every 4 years. What are the odds that one of those races would have been decided by my vote? Let me rephrase that, what are the odds my vote is going to decide a race while Ron Sims, or another partisan Democrat, is King County Executive? Somewhere between none and none.
Does this make me non patriotic? I do not see it that way, but then I am not one of those let's all get out and vote kind of people. There are plenty of people, including many of my own family members, and most of my elected representatives, whom I would prefer would not vote.
Update:
It appears Bryan Suits does not agree with me. I am going to guess he does not get a ballot with the candidate, singular, for the 36th district.
1 comment:
There are a number of possible variations on this theme. For many years I lived in Michigan, where Republicans (shame shame) created a "nonhomestead" school property tax, which is 4 times the school property tax rate levied on "homesteads" i.e. owner-occupied primary residences.
Some people say renters don't pay property taxes and therefore should not be allowed to vote on property taxes. I always figured I would have to pay property taxes one way or another, since landlords are in business to make a profit and are neither altruistic nor charitable concerns - like any business which collects the taxes it pays from its customers, my landlord simply included the taxes in the rents he charged.
So I voted against the nonhomestead tax whenever it was on the ballot.
My "NO" vote was drowned out by the vast number of homeowner votes in favor of the tax: the tax cost them ZERO on their primary residences, and the vast majority of homeowners do not own nonhomestead property, so this tax was like free money for most homeowners.
Questions:
Should I as a renter have been allowed to vote on the nonhomestead tax?
Should homeowners who do not own nonhomestead property be allowed to vote on the nonhomestead tax?
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