Ed Note: This is an interesting opinion piece by a young woman who notes that there are several measures going through the legislature which would make major changes in our state’s tax code. She comments mainly on the capital gains taxes. It’s worth taking a look at HB465 which mainly taxes very high wealth individuals. It doesn’t apply to home sales under $5M, to agricultural land/animals, or 401Ks being an attempt to correct the regressive nature of taxes in our state. What do you think??
From Crosscut byAlysha Fung Koehler.
I don’t like thinking about my mom dying. There are few people on this planet I am closer to. But lately I’ve had to think about her death because I recently learned about an enormous amount of wealth I will inherit from her when she passes.
Thirty years ago, I was born in Sammamish, Washington — one of the richest cities in the country. Living alongside wealth, I learned it’s relative. Our one-story rambler with rust-colored carpets was not as fancy as a lot of neighboring big houses, but it was nicer than many houses in other parts of the region. My parents got it in 1990 as a foreclosure, which meant there was little down payment; neither of them had inherited wealth to start off with. We had two cars, went on skiing vacations and took private piano lessons.
My sisters and I never had an allowance like many Sammamish kids, but my mom used to pay us $10 for every book over 200 pages we read during the summer. She would deduct those earnings from what we were allowed to spend when we went shopping for school clothes at discount stores like Ross and Marshall’s. We each had our own rooms furnished with garage sale discoveries. I never missed a dentist appointment, and my parents never hesitated if I needed to see the pediatrician, even for a minor health concern. We were an upper-middle-class family.
I also enjoyed the public benefits of living amid wealth: excellent public schools, a well-resourced public library, enormous and safe public parks. I had the economic stability to take risks and dream big. I never had to play it safe. If I failed, I knew I had a safety net that would catch me. While most of my friends and young adults make life decisions based on whether they can afford next month’s rent, I’ve had the privilege of choosing to travel, taking unpaid opportunities that advanced my career and studying what interested me (philosophy and public policy) instead of what I knew would secure a job.
I am basically supportive of these measures since this state’s taxation has been regressive and been harmful to the lower income folks. And, I’ll be looking into the details of some of these bills. Thanks for posting this.
And I’ve now looked at the bills in House and Senate. Tax only applies to Cap Gains over $200,000 in the house bill and over $250,000 in the senate bill.