[lbo-talk] A Green Would Like Some Advice/Comments.

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Sun May 18 10:23:10 PDT 2003


chuck at hvgreens.org wrote:


> a) A proposed change to the State Constitution that would both lower the
>State Sales Tax from 6% to 5% and increase taxes on the top 5% (ie. income >=
>$139K/year) of the income distribution an additional 4%. The net result would
>be an increase in revenue to the State of about $700 million, which would
>offset a deficit of $1-2 billion in the current fiscal year.
>
> b) Require all businesses in the state to provide 40 hours of paid vacation
>for each 13 weeks of employment. The 40 hours would apply even if the job in
>question is only part-time.
>
> c) Place a wage tax of $0.75/hour that would be used to fund a defined
>benefit pension plan for all workers in the state. Also, index the minimum
>retirement age to collect the pension benefits to the unemployment rate so the
>minimum age drops when unemployment goes up.
>
>I'm looking for feed-back on these ideas, so any comments are appreciated.

These sound like fine ideas to me. Of course, the "business community" would bellyache no end - it'd destroy jobs, plants would close, etc. etc. - but it's always nice to see capital forced to argue against reasonable proposals.

Doug



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