What Ethics Rules are in Place?

“Hoping to raise $1 billion in new revenue, Reps in the State House introduced a bill on Friday to temporarily raise the sales tax by 1 percent.”

How imaginative.

At what point does Washington decide its regressive tax structure is too regressive? When it hits 100% on sales taxes? 200%?

I consider myself a progressive, but thus sales tax is out of hand. 10.5% in Seattle after this?? All while Gregoire secretly renegotiated public employes contracts out of session so that they would not have to share the sacrifice? hmmm

Considering yourself a progressive means seeing sales tax as out of hand. It disproportionately affects the poor, and barely takes a dent out of the rich.

Clearly increasing this tax will reduce buying power for those with no excess income (savings each month) which not only hurts those people directly but also those that now have less sales.

Perhaps this is a time to push a progressive income tax amendment with a hard cap on all sales taxes.

More reason for people to live near Vancouver, WA and shop in Portland, Oregon. Best of both worlds: No income tax and no sales tax.

HB 3183 – DIGEST
Enacts an excise tax equivalent to one percent that will
be: (1) Reduced to one-half of a percent when the state's
unemployment decreases to six and five-tenths percent for four
continuous months; and
(2) Eliminated when the unemployment rate decreases to
five percent for four continuous months.
Creates the local government transportation account.

Hahahaha. Basically, forever. According to the Feds, we will not see
5% until at least 2016, but that's their best guess. Talk about
a red herring tax increase.

We should just raise it to 15% and put armed border guards there to check for untaxed purchasers. When caught we can through them in jail using the extra tax to hire more guards and thereby lowering unemployment.

Sales tax does not disproportionately hurt the very poor, because they can't afford to buy anything but food. Most people at 30% or below median income don't buy huge-screen TVs or new cars.

As far as middle-income people, if you buy a $2,000 TV set, your tax now would be $200. At 11% (a 1 cent raise), it would be $220. Tell me how that would hurt you terribly.

Don't like a sales tax increase but agree that we can't and shouldn't cut to a balanced budget? Then what is the option? Yeah – there will be a bunch of “we need an income tax” – and how likely is that going to happen in the next six weeks?

Yes, a sales tax increase sucks – but the alternative that sucks more. I say props to those legislators who are willing to step up to the problem with a temporary sales tax increase – as a stop-gap measure.

And those who drive to Portland to avoid the tax – well, gas and time cost money . . .

Revenue advocates don't want to add to the burden on low income WA residents and the mechanism to prevent that already exists: The Working Families Tax Credit.

http://www.budgetandpolicy.org/schmudget/workin…

Sales taxes are a miserable way to raise necessary revenue but implementing a state income tax after dealing with inevitable legal challenges would take years and there isn't the political will to increase B&O tax on businesses or close most loopholes.

I'd rather pay that extra 1% than settle for the alternative of more cuts to critical human services: even if you make $100,000 a year and spend a third of that on sales-taxable items we're talking about an additional $333 – about one month of Disability Lifeline support (GAU) for a disabled veteran!

We jacked the sales tax to pay for the Cadillac of transit systems—Sound Transit—tried and true buses aren't good enough—and much, much worse, to pay for a couple stadiums for billionaires.

Without checking, I think those hits alone took the sales tax up two full percentage points in Seattle & King County. It's a little late for Democrats who backed these deals—and Democrats backed them strongly as jobs deals—to talk regression, and turn our backs for whatever reason, when the help & expense is really needed, by ordinary people.

The most regressive tax policy imaginable is having too little taxes. Which is worse for low-income families, paying 15% sales tax or underfunding healthcare, education, public safety, affordable housing, transit, environmental protection, infrastructure, economic development, and aid to the poor? The rich can buy their own healthcare, send their kids to private schools, hire private security guards and buy their way into gated communities.

I don't like our regressive tax system any more than you do, but we do not have an income tax and we are not going to have an income tax. The choice is between raising the taxes we do have (sales, property and B&O taxes) or cutting government services to the bone. One of those options is much worse than the other.

Well, start gathering signatures to put an income tax on the ballot. Form an organized citizens' group to lobby the legislature to support an constitutional amendment. Find out which legislators oppose the amendment and recruit candidates in their districts to run against them until you make it to 2/3.

You want an income tax? Then do the work necessary to implement an income tax. Sounds too hard? Then stop wasting everyone's time talking about it. Saying you oppose a sales tax increase because you'd rather have an income tax is like saying you oppose building light rail because you'd rather have flying cars. That's nice and all, but flying cars are not on the table. Neither is an income tax.

sarah i think that the point is that overall, a sales tax is worse for low-income earners than an income tax. even if you make 17k a year, which is 30% for an individual, you still have to buy necessary items and the tax on those things adds up over time to a much larger portion of that person's income than what a rich person would proportionally pay. it is straight up regressive and soon we will be at 15% which is crazy crazy crazy.

It's always humorous to read the comments of a bunch of liberal keyboard commandos whining about the sales tax.

Maybe the state should actually ask its employees to contribute to their own health care or even better lay off 10%–a much smaller number than the 25% + layoffs businesses routinely have to do to keep the doors open (you know, those entities where JOBS come from?)

Maybe the state shouldn't increase eligibility for medicaid and other health care related program to 300% of fpl in good times.

Maybe the state should reform a thoroughly corrupt worker's comp system.

Maybe the state should amend another flawed initiative, 937, and consider hydro a “renewable” resource (where Seattle gets the bulk of its power from).

But those would be reasonable things that the tax sucking folks would never hear of while we starve K-12 and higher ed to kowtow to SEIU, the Labor Council and AFSCME.

And have the freakin' guts to legalize weed.