Last year, Washington State legislators passed a capital gains tax on the profits wealthy state residents make when they trade stocks, bonds, and other assets.  In response, a group of individuals recently filed Initiative 1929, an initiative that seeks to repeal this new law.

PPPA faculty members Katie Baird, Anna Lovasz and Tim Sharks, joined by six others, weighed in on the appeal effort, arguing that:

“I-1929 would continue to ask those with the least to pay the most by giving a tax cut to only the very wealthy individuals who pay this tax. This tax cut for the super rich would cost our state over $500 million per year in funding for childcare, early learning, and other education services that children and families across Washington depend on.”

If passed, I-1929 would repeal SB 5096, a 7% tax on capital gains profits greater than $250,000. If the initiative gets enough signatures, Washington residents would vote on whether or not to repeal the state’s new capital gains tax.

Professor Mary Hanneman’s new book, Becoming Nisei: Japanese American Urban Lives in Prewar Tacoma (written with UWT Prof. Lisa Hoffman) is receiving significant attention in the local community.  Becoming Nisei explores Tacoma’s prewar Nihonmachi’s (Japan Town) vibrant and close-knit community, one consisting of first- generation Japanese immigrants and their second-generation American children. Prior to World War II, Tacoma was filled with Japanese businesses, homes, hotels and churches.  The Tacoma Japanese Language School, located in Tacoma’s current downtown core, was a central institution in the lives of Tacoma’s Japanese population.  Influenced both by the transnational connections to Japan and by the spatial components of the city itself, the book tells the story of the world they built, one destroyed then erased by incarceration and the passage of time.

On February 19th, the Day of Remembrance of Japanese American Incarceration During World War II, Prof. Hanneman and Prof. Hoffman gave a presentation on this history to the Washington State History Museum’s series Scholarly Selections. Their talk, entitled “Structural Erasure: Remembering Japanese Americans in Prewar Tacoma,” focused on the unique features of Tacoma’s prewar Japanese community, including its single, secular language school, prominent school leadership, and the size and spatial layout of the community.  The book is based on interviews with 42 Nisei who grew up in Tacoma as well as archival work in the University of Washington Libraries Special Collections. 

Thanks to Profs Hanneman and Hoffman for bringing this important period in our past to light, and highlighting the human stories behind the tragic treatment of the Japanese during World War II.

Congratulations to Prof. Anna Lovasz, whose article “Gender differences in the effect of subjective feedback in an online game,” was just published by the Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics.