Democrats propose income tax bill
Measure would target top earners
OLYMPIA – Senate Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday that would impose a 1 percent income tax on people making more than $500,000 a year.
The bill, sponsored by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, D-Seattle, comes shortly after Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, began pondering the possibility of a state income tax on her blog.
On Tuesday, Brown noted that New York is considering a similar measure. Brown wrote that New York’s plan to increase existing state income tax rates on top earners would be “a fair and stable way” of dealing with that state’s declining revenue. Brown’s staff, however, said the timing of the bill and Brown’s postings were just a coincidence.
Kohl-Welles introduced a similar measure in 2007, but it never gained traction. The bill would direct all money raised from the tax to an account that would be used for schools and colleges and universities.
Washington is one of only a handful of states without a state income tax.
In 1932, Washington voters approved an initiative establishing a personal income tax, but that was later struck down by the state Supreme Court. Since then voters have rejected state income tax proposals; the most recent one, in 1973, was defeated by 77 percent of voters.
Brown did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment, but Kohl-Welles said in an e-mail Wednesday night that the bill “would not be a panacea.”
Kohl-Welles wrote that she believes major tax reform needs to take place in the state, but that it’s not likely to happen this year.
One of the income tax bill’s co-sponsors, Sen. Adam Kline, D-Seattle, said he thinks some form of income tax is “absolutely necessary.” But he also characterized the new bill as a conversation starter.
“We’re going to have to have some serious conversations about the role of government and the role of taxation,” he said. “This is a bill to create a public dialogue about the role of taxation.”
Minority Republicans immediately criticized the measure, saying that a “millionaire’s tax” isn’t the answer to the state’s fiscal problems.
Kohl-Welles’ proposal would apply a 1 percent tax on income for single people with incomes of more than $500,000, more than $750,000 for a head of household, and more than $1 million for married couples.