Updates and next downtown meeting Dec 4

With election day over, let's get back to work!

Feedback: In the past few weeks I've pitched our general idea (replace the state property tax with a carbon tax) at a Sustainable Industries green business forum in Seattle, at a UW Earth Club meeting, and at an EOI dinner where I had the honor of sitting with Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (also an economist!) and Bill Gates Sr. Nobody laughed at the idea, but I must confess that nobody was particularly gung-ho about it either. The #1 question I got---over and over again---was about revenue stability: "If the carbon tax succeeds in reducing carbon emissions, what's going to happen to state tax revenue?" My belief is that we need to address this question either by (1) changing our proposal to a property tax rebate or a property tax holiday instead of a property tax repeal, or (2) changing our proposal to include a steady increase in the carbon tax rate, something that would also be a good idea from an environmental standpoint. This is something we can discuss---along with definitions of low income &etc---at our next meeting...

Next meetings: Our next downtown meeting is scheduled for Thursday Dec 4 12-1pm. I am also working on scheduling meetings at UW on some Tuesdays 12-1pm and will post notices about those as they occur.

Yoram's pep talk: I think we are very close to having an idea that we can start pitching in op-eds &etc, and as luck would have it my comedy career is providing me with facetime with some movers and shakers: last week the CEO of Puget Sound Energy said he wanted me to perform for his staff, next week I'll see Lisa Brown again, and---heck---I may even have a coffee date with Todd Myers! My point is not to brag unnecessarily (Todd Myers is actually kind of boring :) but rather to suggest that we're not just spinning our wheels. Yes our effort is a long shot, but doing anything about climate change is a long shot and we have an out-of-the-box idea and a variety of ways to plant a bug in the ear of important people. We're continuing to move forward with the website (thanks Catherine and Christy and Chistopher!) and on the policy front (thanks Bruce!) and we should keep going!