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The Dictator of Washington State Claims He Doesn’t Have ‘Authority’ to Delay Long-term Care Tax
…But he does seem to have the authority to initiate a Covid vaccine mandate statewide for indoor venues like restaurants, music venues, bars, and movie theaters. The Dictator is “monitoring” King County’s mandate to see if it can be expanded statewide.
Here is a link to the article where Dictator Inslee states that he can’t delay the start of the LTC tax which all state workers will be required to pay into starting January 1. By the way, commercial LTC insurance, which workers are required to buy if they do not wish to pay the ever-increasing (the law establishing the tax says that the rate can be increased twice a year) LTC tax, is nearly impossible to get, since all the insurance companies which sell that type of insurance have a long, involved process for evaluating customers that will take longer than until January 1.
If this isn’t a perfect illustration that all the Covid restrictions and mandates aren’t about “public health” any longer, but about control of the population, I don’t know what is.
Published in Politics
Math…
The average annual wage in Washington State was just shy of $80K in 2020.
From the article: ‘The tax, which starts in January, will collect 0.58% of people’s income to go toward long-term care benefits. A person who has paid into the tax for 10 years can collect up to $36,500 in benefits if they are still living in Washington state. That means anyone in Washington who works at least 12.5 hours a week will see $5.80 taken out of their paycheck for every $1,000 they earn.”
Assuming the 80K for 10 years, the average resident would pay in $464 annually, and over the course of 10 years pay in $4640 total, but could collect up to $36,500 in benefits.
Sounds like a program that destined to go underwater very quickly.
But don’t forget that the state can increase the tax rate twice each year. Do you think that they won’t do it? Of course they will!
obviously! the camel’s nose is under the tent…
And they probably figure that a lot of people will pay the tax for years, and then get the hell out when they retire.
The legislature must like what he is doing or they would put a stop to it.
You are only entitled to the payout if you require assisted living/nursing home care while in the State of Washington. You can also be sure that they have 100% property and asset confiscatory laws to pay for said care before this “benefit” would kick in.
The state of CA has a short-term disability program that is funded by a payroll tax. It paid out very poorly when I lived there, and there were a bunch of hoops to jump to institute a claim. I paid into it for 25 years and never collected a dime. The only people I knew who actually got payments from it had babies, and were able to claim it during their maternity leaves.
Despite the actuarial odds, the program was constantly under-funded, and was the subject of periodic editorials in places like the LA Times about the need to increase the payroll deductions and loosen the eligibility criteria. I’m sure they’ve done both since I moved out of CA in 2005.
Typical poorly-run government program. I’m sure Washington’s version of LTD will be equally successful.
King County tyranny coming to a rural county near you.
My sister called the other night to give me a long rant about the LTC mandate. I said maybe it’s time to come home.
Nice promo. Made me want to check it out. Is Nebraska a red state?
Would be fun to see what politically-connected financial firms gets to handle the funds, the growing list of PC requirements imposed on private LTCs to remain eligible to receive those funds, or maybe an opt-out alternative —in lieu of the certainty of being kicked out of LTC within a few months when the saved amount is used up, one could instead get a guaranteed campsite up in the Seattle public space of your choice with a free tent and some pocket change.
At least for the time being.
Pretty red.
The LTC tax is the reason I told the boss at my “temp” job that I come with an expiration date. I will leave the labor force in Washington rather than pay that tax. My job was supposed to last one month when I started at the end of July. Now it looks like I will be working for the rest of this year. Full disclosure: I came out of retirement to work this temp job, and I am enjoying it very much. However, I am looking forward to going back into retirement next year.
It’s a way to pick up some extra money, but I wouldn’t recommend holding onto it as its value decreases and prices go up. Get some things you want before the prices go higher, and/or put it towards a place outside of WA.