4 ms·

Paying for roads, teachers, police, freeways etc. ... Stuff you actually use ... The real question is what do the feds do with 30% of your money? Apart from dra

• Camillo 10y ago
  Washington has no state income tax, and still has all of those things.
  • folli 10y ago
    As a non-US-citizen: how do they do it?
    • grzm 10y ago
      WA has high sales tax, for one.
      • DrScump 10y ago
        WA basic sales tax is 6.5%. CA basic rate is 7.5%, with many local add-ons (making San Jose 9% and San Leandro 10%, for two Bay Area examples)
        • grzm 10y ago
          Are you arguing that WA doesn't have high sales taxes? Many municipalities in WA also have additional taxes as well. Seattle and Tacoma, for example, has 9.6% sales tax. Bellevue, 9.5%. Spokane, 8.7%. Vancouver, 8.4%. 'folly asked how Washington state raises revenue without income tax. 'redx00 and I answered. Do you disagree that sales (and real estate, and other taxes and fees other than income taxes) are how Washington state raises revenue?
          • DrScump 10y ago
            This subthread stems from the WA/CA contrast. I was just pointing out that WA's sales tax is lower than CA's, implying that WA provides comparable infrastructure with just a sales tax as CA does with high levels of both sales tax and income tax.
            • grzm 10y ago
              If you're going to complete the comparison, how do California services compare with Washington's?
              • mtanski 10y ago
                Ever been to a California DMV. I thought NY (NYC) was bad. California DMV takes terrible another notch.
            • dmode 10y ago
              I believe there are a myriad of other taxation that goes on and someone just had to compare where the dollars are coming from - example cigarette taxes, alcohol taxes, property taxes, lottery etc etc
    • redx00 10y ago
      One of the most regressive sales taxes in the country. Also property taxes.
      • bzbarsky 10y ago
        Looking at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_States#Summary_table https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sales_taxes_in_the_United_Stat... I see 12 states with the same base rate as Washington or higher, and another 14 or so just 0.5% behind. I see 13 states with the same "max with local surtax" or higher. Washington does levy sales tax on clothing, but apparently so do most states. So the sales tax is a bit above median, but doesn't seem any more regressive than other states per se. And is lower than California's. Property taxes have more to do with it, I suspect, especially given the mess in California with those.
        • mahyarm 10y ago
          The funny thing is, the effective new property tax rate in Oakland or SF is something like %1.2-%1.5, which is bigger than Seattle King County's tax rate of %1. And Seattle has better roads than the bay area, no state income tax, a lower sales tax and has rainy weather. I don't get it.
          • bzbarsky 10y ago
            > the effective new property tax rate in Oakland or SF is something like %1.2-%1.5 Do you mean the tax rate on new properties? Or the effective rate actually collected, given the restrictions on how much property taxes can rise, etc? I thought one problem in California was that the latter figure, which is the more relevant one, was very low as a result of Prop 13. The other problem in California is that it just seems to not spend money very well, as far as I can tell...
            • mahyarm 10y ago
              Yeah. The tax rate that is collected whenever you buy a property and 'reset' the prop 13 timer. %1 for the base rate, plus a bunch of other one off fixed charges that add up to the %0.2-%0.5 rate. People who have had prop 13 properties for decades have something like a %0.3 equivalent property tax rate.
• DrScump 10y ago
  Paying for roads, teachers, police, freeways... ... $7 billion bridges...
• bzbarsky 10y ago
  > The real question is what do the feds do with 30% of your money? Mostly spend it on Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.