The business/household split for property taxes is about 1/3 business, 2/3 household. Bruce tracked this down from the 2007 Legislative Guide to Washington State Property Taxes.
Saturday, May 16, 2009
FAQ: Business/household property tax split
The business/household split for property taxes is about 1/3 business, 2/3 household. Bruce tracked this down from the 2007 Legislative Guide to Washington State Property Taxes.
Richard Carson at UW on Monday
On Monday May 18, speaking about Carson, Louviere J., and Wei, E. (2008), "Structuring Australia’s Climate Change Plan: The Public’s Views", CenSoC Working Paper No. 08-002 (56k PDF).
Time: Mondy, May 18th from 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: Parrington Hall Forum (Room 309)
Time: Mondy, May 18th from 11:30am-12:30pm
Location: Parrington Hall Forum (Room 309)
Thursday, May 14, 2009
Good news from B.C.
The B.C. carbon tax survived! See also this story with speculation about national implications.
PS. Bill sends along news that some Congressional Republicans have introduced carbon tax legislation.
PS. Bill sends along news that some Congressional Republicans have introduced carbon tax legislation.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Signature-gathering pledges: 10,000!
So we've got pledges for 10,000 signatures! That's a lot less than we need, but it's a start :)
At our next meeting (Th June 4 12-1pm) we should set up a target for the year. I'm thinking pledges for 100,000 signatures (i.e., about 110 people pledging 900 signatures) would be a good number to line up by January 2010. That's a lot of pledges---about 5 pledges of 900 signatures each week for the remainder of the year---and of course that's only a down-payment on the 241,153 valid signatures we'd need by early July 2010 to get on the November 2010 ballot. But I think 100,000 is a good number to target because (1) we'd get extra pledges as we go along in 2010, (2) it's a number that will hopefully help bring some bigger guns on-board, and (3) five 900-signature pledges each week seems daunting but potentially do-able :)
At our next meeting (Th June 4 12-1pm) we should set up a target for the year. I'm thinking pledges for 100,000 signatures (i.e., about 110 people pledging 900 signatures) would be a good number to line up by January 2010. That's a lot of pledges---about 5 pledges of 900 signatures each week for the remainder of the year---and of course that's only a down-payment on the 241,153 valid signatures we'd need by early July 2010 to get on the November 2010 ballot. But I think 100,000 is a good number to target because (1) we'd get extra pledges as we go along in 2010, (2) it's a number that will hopefully help bring some bigger guns on-board, and (3) five 900-signature pledges each week seems daunting but potentially do-able :)
Notes from meeting with WA Roundtable's Steve Mullin
I met today with Steve Mullin, head of WA Roundtable. Detailed notes are below, but the overall impression I got (not unexpected) was that neutrality was pretty much the most we could hope for, and in order to get that we'd need to look at impacts on Boeing, Microsoft, Weyerhaeuser, etc. Details:
- Climate change is not one of their priorities (taxes and education are).
- He expressed some personal preference for carbon taxes over cap-and-trade because of simplicity &etc, which reminded me of Puget Sound Energy's statement of "support for a carbon tax... [because it's] straightforward and transparent... A carbon tax would give the utility sector the cost certainty required to make prudent long-term resource planning decisions and achieve regulatory approval for recovering capital investments."
- He was interested in relative tax burdens on households v. business---claiming that the lack of a state income tax pushed the tax burden onto business---so I shared with him, e.g., Bruce's research on the property tax burden (and hence any property tax relief) being split about 60/40 between households and business.
- He was keen on reducing the B&O (business) tax burden.
- He worried about the impact of a carbon tax on Boeing. (His language was stronger than that :) But he also said that Boeing probably had a large property burden that they'd love to reduce. He gave me the name of a contact there and I've already emailed him.
- He also gave me a contact at Microsoft (I've emailed her too) and suggested that they might be receptive to a carbon tax.
- Because education is one of their priorities, we talked a bit about setting aside a chunk of money for education, but I didn't get a strong sense that this would make the proposal more attractive in their eyes.
Thursday, May 7, 2009
Notes from May 7 meeting
In attendance: Bruce, Catherine, Dorothy, Jim, Yoram.
Policy: There wasn't much said either for or against the new spreadsheet (linked here). Bruce favors $50/ton over $30/ton but also recognizes that there might be political advantages to going with $30/ton, e.g., because that's what BC has done. Bruce also suggested increasing the low-income offset. (I'm still waiting to hear back from my friends at Resources for the Future who are running some numbers on that.)
Website: We agreed that (1) having an internal website (to use, e.g., for signature-gathering volunteers) was more important at the moment than having an external website, but we also agreed that we didn't need either one in order to start reaching out to potential signature-gathering volunteers. FYI, the draft website is here but it's still not ready to go public.
Outreach: We made minor modifications of the email (see below), and this afternoon I sent it out to some folks (including most of the people on the carbonWA email list :) Also Dorothy said she would take the idea back to her group (Citizens Climate Lobby) and Jim said he would spread the word with some colleagues, and also on his widely read e-newsletter when we get our ducks a little more in a row. Thanks to everyone for doing the same!
Next steps: Next meeting downtown is Thursday June 4, 12-1pm. If you want to get more involved between now and then (research/outreach/etc) just holler!
PS. Below is the email asking for signature-gathering volunteers.
Cheers,
yoram
Hi [Pat]: I hope you're enjoying this spring and summer, and I want you to keep enjoying it, but I'm writing to ask for some of your time next spring and summer, i.e., about 10 months from now. Here's the skinny:
* Climate change is not going away, so I'm part of a group that is determined to push a ballot measure here in Washington State if state and federal action continues to stall. Getting on the ballot in November 2010 would mean gathering signatures in February-June 2010, so I'm asking for your help to make that happen. (You'd also be helping one of my dreams come true: I've been serious enough about this that I've practiced over the past few years by personally gathered about 900 signatures each year for a ballot measure I support :)
* We're still working on the policy details, but the gist of it will be (1) imposing a carbon tax of $30-50 per ton of CO2, which amounts to about $0.30-$0.50 per gallon of gasoline or about $0.03-$0.05 per kWh of coal-fired power, with the tax rate increasing over time; (2) using the majority of the revenue to repeal the state portion of the property tax; and (3) using a smaller portion of the revenue to offset impacts on low-income households and perhaps also reduce business taxes and/or increase funding for clean energy research and for K-12 math/science education. FYI this proposal is roughly similar to the award-winning carbon tax currently in effect in British Columbia.
* I am asking for you to commit to gathering 900 signatures between early February 2010 and late June 2010. This will not be super-easy, but it will also not be impossible: at an average signature-gathering rate of 25 signatures per hour (or 100 in a 4-hour shift), that means finding nine friends to join you for just a single 4-hour shift, or finding three friends to join you for three 4-hour shifts, or doing nine 4-hour shifts on your lonesome (which is mostly what I've done during my volunteer efforts these last few years, and it's really not that bad---36 hours goes by fast :). And of course we'll provide you with training and lists of good signature-gathering locations &etc... all we need is your time and enthusiasm!
* Just for the record, what I am really asking for is an _option_ on your time and enthusiasm: If federal or state action makes the ballot measure unnecessary, or if we fail to interest enough people in gathering signatures for the ballot measure, you'll be free to devote your time and enthusiasm elsewhere. But we'd like to count on your participation IF we can drum up a critical mass of support and IF there is no state or federal action by early 2010.
Let me know if you have any questions, let me know if you're game, and thank you!
PS. Please do share this with friends who might be interested, and if you and/or they want to be on our once-a-week email list, the more the merrier :)
Regards,
yoram
Policy: There wasn't much said either for or against the new spreadsheet (linked here). Bruce favors $50/ton over $30/ton but also recognizes that there might be political advantages to going with $30/ton, e.g., because that's what BC has done. Bruce also suggested increasing the low-income offset. (I'm still waiting to hear back from my friends at Resources for the Future who are running some numbers on that.)
Website: We agreed that (1) having an internal website (to use, e.g., for signature-gathering volunteers) was more important at the moment than having an external website, but we also agreed that we didn't need either one in order to start reaching out to potential signature-gathering volunteers. FYI, the draft website is here but it's still not ready to go public.
Outreach: We made minor modifications of the email (see below), and this afternoon I sent it out to some folks (including most of the people on the carbonWA email list :) Also Dorothy said she would take the idea back to her group (Citizens Climate Lobby) and Jim said he would spread the word with some colleagues, and also on his widely read e-newsletter when we get our ducks a little more in a row. Thanks to everyone for doing the same!
Next steps: Next meeting downtown is Thursday June 4, 12-1pm. If you want to get more involved between now and then (research/outreach/etc) just holler!
PS. Below is the email asking for signature-gathering volunteers.
Cheers,
yoram
Hi [Pat]: I hope you're enjoying this spring and summer, and I want you to keep enjoying it, but I'm writing to ask for some of your time next spring and summer, i.e., about 10 months from now. Here's the skinny:
* Climate change is not going away, so I'm part of a group that is determined to push a ballot measure here in Washington State if state and federal action continues to stall. Getting on the ballot in November 2010 would mean gathering signatures in February-June 2010, so I'm asking for your help to make that happen. (You'd also be helping one of my dreams come true: I've been serious enough about this that I've practiced over the past few years by personally gathered about 900 signatures each year for a ballot measure I support :)
* We're still working on the policy details, but the gist of it will be (1) imposing a carbon tax of $30-50 per ton of CO2, which amounts to about $0.30-$0.50 per gallon of gasoline or about $0.03-$0.05 per kWh of coal-fired power, with the tax rate increasing over time; (2) using the majority of the revenue to repeal the state portion of the property tax; and (3) using a smaller portion of the revenue to offset impacts on low-income households and perhaps also reduce business taxes and/or increase funding for clean energy research and for K-12 math/science education. FYI this proposal is roughly similar to the award-winning carbon tax currently in effect in British Columbia.
* I am asking for you to commit to gathering 900 signatures between early February 2010 and late June 2010. This will not be super-easy, but it will also not be impossible: at an average signature-gathering rate of 25 signatures per hour (or 100 in a 4-hour shift), that means finding nine friends to join you for just a single 4-hour shift, or finding three friends to join you for three 4-hour shifts, or doing nine 4-hour shifts on your lonesome (which is mostly what I've done during my volunteer efforts these last few years, and it's really not that bad---36 hours goes by fast :). And of course we'll provide you with training and lists of good signature-gathering locations &etc... all we need is your time and enthusiasm!
* Just for the record, what I am really asking for is an _option_ on your time and enthusiasm: If federal or state action makes the ballot measure unnecessary, or if we fail to interest enough people in gathering signatures for the ballot measure, you'll be free to devote your time and enthusiasm elsewhere. But we'd like to count on your participation IF we can drum up a critical mass of support and IF there is no state or federal action by early 2010.
Let me know if you have any questions, let me know if you're game, and thank you!
PS. Please do share this with friends who might be interested, and if you and/or they want to be on our once-a-week email list, the more the merrier :)
Regards,
yoram
Monday, May 4, 2009
Agenda for Th meeting downtown 12-1pm
Hey everyone: Here's a tentative agenda for Thursday's meeting, which is 12-1pm in the 5th floor conference room at 1402 3rd Ave downtown. Hope to see you there!
* Updates (5 minutes): News about WCI, federal action, stakeholder meetings, etc. FYI, here's my update in a nutshell: I've gotten a good response from some green energy Venture Capital folks and a UW student group (UW SEED), a less good response from some environmental groups---having lost the battle at the state level, they have apparently decided to join the battle at the federal level---and am looking forward to discussions in the next week or two with some social justice folks, with some folks connected to big business, and with economic researchers at RFF who are going to tell us about impacts on different income deciles.
* Policy (15 minutes): Here's an updated spreadsheet that includes stronger GHG targets (which makes our revenue estimates more conservative), a lower initial tax rate, and rate increases of inflation plus 5% annually: carbonwa7.xls. It hasn't changed that much from the previous version (carbonwa6.xls), and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but my 2 cents are that the changes make it more stable in the long-run and more politically attractive in the short-run (e.g., by starting at $30 per ton rather than $50 per ton we can truthfully say that we're just mimicking the carbon tax already in place in British Columbia).
* Website (15 minutes): After a long delay I think we need to get cracking again on having a bare-bones but functional website, so let's talk about who our target audience is and what we need on the website and how to get it done.
* Outreach (15 minutes): I've drafted an email (copied below) to start drumming up support for signature-gathering, and I'm looking for feedback.
* Next steps (10 minutes): To-do list and next downtown meeting Th June 4 from 12-1pm.
Let me know if you have additions/corrections/suggestions for the meeting agenda, and if you can't make the meeting but want to chime in via email please do!
HERE'S THE DRAFT EMAIL (written from my perspective but not hard to modify):
Hi [Pat]: I hope you're enjoying this spring and summer, and I want you to keep enjoying it, but I'm writing to ask for some of your time next spring and summer, i.e., about 10 months from now. Here's the skinny:
* Climate change is not going away, so I'm part of a group that is determined to push a ballot measure here in Washington State if state and federal action continues to stall. Getting on the ballot in November 2010 would mean gathering signatures in February-June 2010, so I'm asking for your help to make that happen. (You'd also be helping one of my dreams come true: I've been serious enough about this that I've practiced over the past few years by personally gathered about 900 signatures each year for a ballot measure I support :)
* We're still working on the policy details, but the gist of it will be (1) imposing a carbon tax of $30-50 per ton of CO2, which amounts to about $0.30-$0.50 per gallon of gasoline or about $0.03-$0.05 per kWh of coal-fired power; (2) using the majority of the revenue to repeal the state portion of the property tax; and (3) using a smaller portion of the revenue to offset impacts on low-income households and perhaps also reduce business taxes and/or increase funding for clean energy research and for K-12 math/science education. Some details are online at www.ourwebsite.org, and FYI this proposal is roughly similar to the award-winning carbon tax currently in effect in British Columbia.
* I am asking for you to commit to gathering 900 signatures between early February 2010 and late June 2010. This will not be super-easy, but it will also not be impossible: at an average signature-gathering rate of 25 signatures per hour (or 100 in a 4-hour shift), that means finding nine friends to join you for just a single 4-hour shift, or finding three friends to join you for three 4-hour shifts, or doing nine 4-hour shifts on your lonesome (which is mostly what I've done during my volunteer efforts these last few years, and it's really not that bad :). And of course we'll provide you with training and lists of good signature-gathering locations &etc... all we need is your time and enthusiasm!
* Just for the record, what I am really asking for is an _option_ on your time and enthusiasm: If federal or state action makes the ballot measure unnecessary, or if we fail to interest enough people in the ballot measure, you'll be free to devote your time and enthusiasm elsewhere. But we'd like to count on your participation IF we can drum up a critical mass of support and IF there is no state or federal action by early 2010.
Let me know if you have any questions, let me know if you're game, and thank you!
yoram
* Updates (5 minutes): News about WCI, federal action, stakeholder meetings, etc. FYI, here's my update in a nutshell: I've gotten a good response from some green energy Venture Capital folks and a UW student group (UW SEED), a less good response from some environmental groups---having lost the battle at the state level, they have apparently decided to join the battle at the federal level---and am looking forward to discussions in the next week or two with some social justice folks, with some folks connected to big business, and with economic researchers at RFF who are going to tell us about impacts on different income deciles.
* Policy (15 minutes): Here's an updated spreadsheet that includes stronger GHG targets (which makes our revenue estimates more conservative), a lower initial tax rate, and rate increases of inflation plus 5% annually: carbonwa7.xls. It hasn't changed that much from the previous version (carbonwa6.xls), and I look forward to hearing your thoughts, but my 2 cents are that the changes make it more stable in the long-run and more politically attractive in the short-run (e.g., by starting at $30 per ton rather than $50 per ton we can truthfully say that we're just mimicking the carbon tax already in place in British Columbia).
* Website (15 minutes): After a long delay I think we need to get cracking again on having a bare-bones but functional website, so let's talk about who our target audience is and what we need on the website and how to get it done.
* Outreach (15 minutes): I've drafted an email (copied below) to start drumming up support for signature-gathering, and I'm looking for feedback.
* Next steps (10 minutes): To-do list and next downtown meeting Th June 4 from 12-1pm.
Let me know if you have additions/corrections/suggestions for the meeting agenda, and if you can't make the meeting but want to chime in via email please do!
HERE'S THE DRAFT EMAIL (written from my perspective but not hard to modify):
Hi [Pat]: I hope you're enjoying this spring and summer, and I want you to keep enjoying it, but I'm writing to ask for some of your time next spring and summer, i.e., about 10 months from now. Here's the skinny:
* Climate change is not going away, so I'm part of a group that is determined to push a ballot measure here in Washington State if state and federal action continues to stall. Getting on the ballot in November 2010 would mean gathering signatures in February-June 2010, so I'm asking for your help to make that happen. (You'd also be helping one of my dreams come true: I've been serious enough about this that I've practiced over the past few years by personally gathered about 900 signatures each year for a ballot measure I support :)
* We're still working on the policy details, but the gist of it will be (1) imposing a carbon tax of $30-50 per ton of CO2, which amounts to about $0.30-$0.50 per gallon of gasoline or about $0.03-$0.05 per kWh of coal-fired power; (2) using the majority of the revenue to repeal the state portion of the property tax; and (3) using a smaller portion of the revenue to offset impacts on low-income households and perhaps also reduce business taxes and/or increase funding for clean energy research and for K-12 math/science education. Some details are online at www.ourwebsite.org, and FYI this proposal is roughly similar to the award-winning carbon tax currently in effect in British Columbia.
* I am asking for you to commit to gathering 900 signatures between early February 2010 and late June 2010. This will not be super-easy, but it will also not be impossible: at an average signature-gathering rate of 25 signatures per hour (or 100 in a 4-hour shift), that means finding nine friends to join you for just a single 4-hour shift, or finding three friends to join you for three 4-hour shifts, or doing nine 4-hour shifts on your lonesome (which is mostly what I've done during my volunteer efforts these last few years, and it's really not that bad :). And of course we'll provide you with training and lists of good signature-gathering locations &etc... all we need is your time and enthusiasm!
* Just for the record, what I am really asking for is an _option_ on your time and enthusiasm: If federal or state action makes the ballot measure unnecessary, or if we fail to interest enough people in the ballot measure, you'll be free to devote your time and enthusiasm elsewhere. But we'd like to count on your participation IF we can drum up a critical mass of support and IF there is no state or federal action by early 2010.
Let me know if you have any questions, let me know if you're game, and thank you!
yoram
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