Network of wealthy wants to pay more taxes [View All]

[imurhuckleberry]

April 9, 2010

Seattle Times business reporter

Some rich Americans are leading a tax revolt of sorts — to pay more, not less.

Judy Pigott, a Seattle author, philanthropist and an heir to the Paccar fortune, is among the group of wealthy individuals calling on Congress to end tax breaks that have enriched people like her.

They have signed a Tax Fairness Pledge to take the money they saved as part of tax cuts enacted under President George W. Bush and donate it to groups working to overturn those policies.

The tax cuts were "based on the erroneous assumption that the trickle-down effect would somehow benefit everyone," Pigott said. "What we have now is the greatest wealth disparity since the Great Depression."

She is part of a group called Responsible Wealth, a project of the nonprofit United for a Fair Economy. The network of 700 people who are among the wealthiest 5 percent in the U.S. includes Jeffrey Hollender, the co-founder of Seventh Generation natural products, and Eric Schoenberg, an economist at Columbia University and former investment banker.

continued...http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2011571518_taxwealth10.html