Updates and Thursday Jan 8 meeting downtown

Happy New Year, everyone! Our next meeting is this Thursday, Jan 8, 12-1pm in the 5th floor conference room at 1402 3rd Ave. Sorry for the late notice.

Agenda
* 12:00-12:05: Updates (see also below) and introductions
* 12:05-12:40: Detailed discussion of the spreadsheet that Bruce drafted: BruceF.xls. Based on his prior work and a spreadsheet I posted last time, this spreadsheet should be a good focal point for continued discussions about tax rates, low-income rebate, spending options, and other policy issues.
* 12:40-12:55: Strategy for 2009: What are our goals and what are next steps? (For example, when would be a good time to start submitting op-ed pieces?)
* FYI, our next meeting downtown is Th Feb 5, 12-1pm.

Updates
* One recent article of interest is conservative columnist Charles Krauthammer's call for a revenue-neutral $1/gallon gas tax in this Weekly Standard cover story (he says he's an "agnostic" on anthropogenic climate change and mostly talks about how the gas tax would be good for national security reasons and to avoid more heavy-handed government policies like tighter CAFE fuel-economy standards). In advocating a policy in this direction, Krauthammer joins a fine group of conservatives that also includes speechwriter David Frum, Harvard economist Greg Mankiw, and local Todd Myers from the Washington Policy Center.
* Another interesting read is this NY Times article ("In Obama's team, two camps on climate", Jan 2). The Obama camp's supposed opposition to carbon taxes should be a huge warning sign that he may not be all that keen on cap-and-trade either---remember that both policies will raise energy prices.
* Finally, yesterday's P-I article ("Eyman launches campaign for a tax-capping initiative", Jan 6) emphasizes the continued political attractiveness of targeting property taxes. The initiative Eyman filed is the "Lower Property Taxes Initiative" and it was only one of two initiatives that were filed to reduce property taxes.
* Oh, and one more: An article in the Seattle Times ("Governor favors mostly free permits for polluters", Dec 13). The title of the article pretty much says it all, but this is very bad news for anybody who wants sensible climate policy.