Beware of Barbieri tax

As a former legislative research analyst and Olympia lobbyist, I will say this notion of a tax on intangibles (activity related to stocks, bonds, notes, etc.) has been around for a long time. It is very unclear given state Supreme Court rulings on the definition of income whether or not this type of tax is a de facto income tax, as capital gains is income per federal tax law.

But, aside from the possible constitutional questions, it is clear any new tax begins the process of camel’s nose under the tent. The original rate and basis soon grows to meet spending requests, which from government are mostly going to be for compensation.

As for efforts to tax the wealthy, many of us pay a wealth tax now called the property tax on unrealized and unrealistic valuations. Under a true market-to-market appraisal, there is no question my home isn’t worth the assessed valuation. Then, for many taxpayers, the total tax payment exceeds any reasonable definition of fair share, especially for schools.

Instead, it amounts to an assessment for the privilege of living in a dwelling or holding real property even if the burden requires many taxpayers to struggle financially.

Lastly, I would say that if Don Barbieri is concerned about fairness, he should focus on changes to the existing state tax system rather than going after some type of new get-the-wealthy-to-pay plan.

Doug Pullen

Liberty Lake