As Andrew Garber at the Seattle Times reported earlier, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown (D-3, Spokane) said a sales tax increase isn’t in a compromise revenue proposal that she, Speaker of the House Rep. Frank Chopp (D-43, Seattle) and the governor agree on. We just got off the phone with Sen. Brown and others and have some more details.
Brown said that the beer tax is included in the package, the soda tax might be, and a B&O tax on custom software, which the House had proposed, is not included in the package. There are still details to hammer out, and leadership in both chambers are talking with members and getting a vote count. If an agreement is reached tonight, the speaker, majority leader and governor will issue a join statement tomorrow morning with full details of the plan. The revenue package brings in $800 million in new revenue.
In the Senate—where the only revenue idea that could ever generate enough votes all session had been a sales tax—Sen. Brown said the vote count is now “looking good.”
House and Senate Democrats have been at a seeming standstill for over four weeks about how to raise new revenue. House leadership vehemently opposed an increase to the state sales tax, and the Senate didn’t like some of the House’s B&O tax proposals, such as the one on custom software. The Senate has slowly lowered the increase, originally at .3 percent, by .1 percent increments until today, when Sen. Brown said it’s gone.
Sen. Ed Murray (D-43, Seattle) said that budget negotiators and leadership decided they wouldn’t “get idealistic” about what taxes they levied, and that they made what must have been refreshing progress last night and again this morning.
Viet Shelton, spokesman for the governor’s office, said today is a an informal logistical deadline for the Legislature. In order to have the revenue package and budget language written, printed, passed by both chambers and signed by the governor by the end of special session (April 13), a deal needs to be reached tonight.
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I think the bright side in all of this is that (for better or worse) we've learned what huge revenue sources cigarette, soda, candy and, or course, gas are. all of these could be increased again and be politically palpable next time around when things are deemed worse once again.
Chopp grins, the house wins, Lisa blinks, and up goes the price of everything we drink. It stinks.
Except for what you count on as a revenue source is being discouraged on a daily basis; how stupid is that to actually count on that revenue? If any of the programs succeed in cutting down use, you have another revenue problem on your hands – then what?
Think about it – your hole only gets deaper…..pretty soon they'll be proposing a tax on breathing – that'll never be diminished….
And who could blame them? After all that 0.2% sales tax increase would have cost the average Washington family the equivalent of whole couple of meals at Mickey D's.
Why not an Asset Tax? Obama lead the way with a 3.5% tax on interest and dividend income for Medicare in the new health care plan. Instead of taxing the poor, middle class, the entrepreneur and small businessmen with petty taxes on income, capital gains, sales and other nuisances — why not go to the heart of the matter and add an asset tax?
What is an asset tax?