Finally an opportunity...Eastern Washington Independence

[MtnSurfer]

Originally Posted by Seacove

^^^ Interesting since Washington didn’t officially become a state until 1889. We’re actually quite young to the country.

It just shows there has been early factions and separatists from the initial forming of statehood. If anything, there was probably a better chance back then when initially formalizing vs. now.

Derek

[Transmition]

Originally Posted by 509

I did look at the data set from 2014. Remove King County from Washington state and eastern Washington received 423.7 million dollars more than the revenue they generated, while western Washington received 2.872 BILLION dollars more than the revenue generated.

The 2016 numbers tell a very different story. If I exclude King county (the county where half of the people in Snohomish County and Pierce County work to generate a big chunk of that money) then eastern Wa gets $1.4 billion (for its 1.5 million residents) and western Wa gets $1.6 billion (for its 3.3 million residents)



It would be interesting to see how much of King County revenue is generated by the populations of the surrounding counties compared to King County residents. Having such a large metro area with commutes that go far beyond the boundaries make it a much fuzzier picture.

Originally Posted by 509

King County generates incredible amounts of state revenue. That is a given, most of it goes to western Washington. When you include gas tax revenues and expenditures, eastern Washington breaks even.

That's not even close to true. You are out by a factor of a thousand on gas revenues. Eastern Washington is still far more than a billion in the hole every year however you look at it.

[rkcarguy]

Originally Posted by Seacove

As much as the Republicans fantasize about Seattle begging with a tin cup, Seattle has money. We pay for food two and three times 1) Federal farm subsidies 2) Money directed to Eastern Washington because they always need it 3) Directly at the store. They are getting paid multiple times for food and they get paid for the electricity too. Even then - they STILL need our money.

The person working, commuting and paying their bills in King or Snohomish, should not have to contribute to $3 billion annually gifted to Eastern Washington because of their poor job opportunities and failed businesses. That said, split the state and let them see if their prospects improve without Western Washington's money. Take away the customers paying two and three times for Eastern Washington's agriculture and that's where barter town will be. Charge Eastern Washington huge export fees to ship internationally and it gets tougher. Remember, nineteen counties in Eastern Washington are already deeply deeply underwater and only surviving by the contributions Western Washington makes.

This was not my OP. I simply see the positives in supporting it. Don't like it? Talk to the OP. I'm just very willing to support their idea.

I agree. Its broken policy that makes Eastern WA need to be subsidized by Western WA. And then, when our dollar is weak, lots of those good grains, fruits, and veggies we have already paid 2/3rds for (and also most of our local fish from the westside) go straight past our stores and onto the barge overseas or on the trains to Canada.

Transmition, I was having fun with the mad max theme for the most part. In reality both sides need each other, but it's failed policy that has made things the way they are. As before, I blame the B&O tax mostly. Think about it, if a rancher in Eastern WA grows and sells $1million worth of fruit at a 5% margin, the B&O tax is going to hit that ranchers gross sales of $1million, not the profit. If he sells it for export out of state or country, that B&O tax does not apply. For my prior small business in auto parts, I was charged 3.5% on gross sales within the state, regardless of profit or loss. Apply that to that rancher, and he only made $50K on his $1million in fruit sales and then had to cough up $35K in B&O taxes leaving him only $15K net profit. (As an example, I don't know what the B&O tax % is for other commodities).
Of course this doesn't pencil and people still have to eat food and somehow afford WA's average $360K house, so there goes more of our tax $$$ to prop them up instead of fixing what is broken.