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April 11, 2010 in City
Washington House OKs tax plan
Budget impasse finally broken; Senate votes today or Monday
OLYMPIA – Democratic leaders began pushing a package of some $668 million in higher taxes through the Legislature on Saturday, suspending rules as they tried to beat the Tuesday deadline to adjourn.
The House of Representatives voted 52-44 to approve a tax plan made public a few hours earlier after more than a week of closed-door negotiations between Democratic leaders and Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Some Democrats who voted yes conceded it was a less than perfect plan. Rep. Timm Ormsby of Spokane said he liked some of the earlier House tax proposals which closed off more tax exemptions and hit consumers of certain items less.
The proposal would raise taxes on candy and gum, soda, bottled water and mass-production beer.
“These are some of the things that people use to reward themselves,” said Ormsby, the sole Spokane-area representative voting yes. But the bill couldn’t be amended because of legislative rules governing the way it was presented, so it was an up or down vote on a plan to balance the budget, he said.
Republicans were united against the bill, contending it wouldn’t treat people equally. Rep. Doug Ericksen, R-Ferndale, noted that beer from large out-of-state breweries is taxed an extra 50 cents a gallon, or about a nickel for a 12-ounce can, but more expensive beer from microbreweries is exempt from the tax.
“This Legislature couldn’t even be fair on how it raises the tax on beer,” he said. “You stick it to the working man and give the high-fallutin’, high-paid guy in Seattle a break.”
The proposal would also raise taxes on the service industry, on out-of-state companies doing business in Washington, property management firms, and on some bank costs for servicing mortgages. Rep. Larry Crouse, R-Spokane Valley, said it was the worst of several tax packages the House has passed during the session.
“You’re targeting businesses, and some of them are right on the edge now,” said Crouse, who said a general sales tax increase would have been fairer if taxes had to be raised. “This is a job killer.”
Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, one of the architects of the plan, said the House and Senate struggled for months to find a tax package that could pass both chambers, and this was the result. “I don’t like everything in this package,” he said. “But I like 20 percent across-the-board cuts even less.”
Gregoire warned legislators if they can’t pass a tax package and a balanced budget by the session’s end at midnight Tuesday, she’d cut all programs not constitutionally mandated by 20 percent.
The Senate is to vote on the same package either today or Monday.
“I believe we’ll have 25 votes,” said Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. Some members want a closer look at the spending package, which is separate from the tax proposal, before making a final commitment on taxes. It may not be the same 25 Democrats who voted for previous tax plans, she added.
A late addition to the plan is a tax on soda of 2 cents per can or about 50 cents per case. Representatives of the state’s soft drink bottling and distribution industry – many in bright red Coca-Cola or blue Pepsi shirts – flooded the hallways before floor action in an effort to peel off support for the package. But so did green-shirted members of the state employees unions, who face more layoffs in an “all-cuts” budget with no tax increase.
Democratic leaders have been negotiating the tax package in secret for more than a week but released the full plan to the public some 30 minutes before members began floor action. Legislative leaders had said the bill would have to sit for 24 hours before any votes were taken, but that rule was suspended and the House voted in the early evening.
Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center, a fiscally conservative watchdog group, blasted the rush to vote on a 112-page bill that most legislators hadn’t even read.
“Regardless of how one plans to vote, it is very disappointing that state representatives not only believe they don’t need at least a day to study the details of a massive tax increase,” he said, “but that their constituents don’t deserve this common sense courtesy either.”
Romney/Paul split weighing on county GOP 
lewis8457 on April 11 at 9:05 a.m.
Once these taxes are imposed and they figure out it still is not enough money, they will tax other comforts.
Driving manufacturers and little stores out of the market. There by increasing unemployment. What a bunch of morons.
Theanticscontinue on April 11 at 10:25 a.m.
Lewis, you’ve got that right. This State legislature has no fiscal responsibility, just tax some more! Since I am now un-employed for the first time in my life I think it is a good time to look to other States for employment and a new place to live.
JBlim on April 11 at 11:36 a.m.
Yeah, Lewis. Soon there won’t be any more stores in Washington. We’ll all die of starvation, unemployment will be the least of our problems.
Theants:
Well by this table, you should move to Nevada or Alaska which ranks 49th & 50 in state-local tax burden: WA is 35th so there are 15 better states to choose from. Have a nice move, and send us a postcard.
http://www.retirementliving.com/tax_burden_2008.pdf
misjustice on April 11 at 12:19 p.m.
JBlim…We’ll miss him! Yeah, you betcha! ; )
conservativenorthwest on April 11 at 1:54 p.m.
I just hope Lewis doesn’t take his company…and your jobs…with him. But that’s okay, you can always become state union employees. That way if you want a pay raise, you can just force the legislature to raise their taxes some more.
Oh wait…if Lewis, his friends, their businesses, and their jobs are gone, whose taxes will they raise? Wherever will the state get the money to pay those unions?
misjustice on April 11 at 2:10 p.m.
Ummm, with all respect to Lewis, he doesn’t own a business.
But I do, and I will pay the required increases in taxes in order to shoulder my share of what it takes to live in a civilized society. And, I will continue to pay my employees above the State minimum wage and with tax credits from the newly passed Health Insurance Reform Bill will look forward to being able to offer an insurance plan.
And, I will also work 2 part-time jobs, paying taxes on that income also; because I want to do my best to keep my business and the opportunities that it provides.
I take the outlook that this is a “we” society, not a “me” society.
MrDavis on April 11 at 2:10 p.m.
It’s a good thing the road to Idaho is interstate as I suspect the traffic roundtrip from Spokane is about to increase radically.
JBlim on April 11 at 2:32 p.m.
Really, MrDavis, you should refuse to drive on that socialist interstate highway. Think of the taxes that went into it!
Another_Perspective on April 11 at 2:59 p.m.
If misjustice put his money where his mouth was. we could solve the deficit. However he probably doesnt have too much after his food stamps.
smarg on April 11 at 4:49 p.m.
Vote all Demoncraps out!! Cripple Odumbo this fall and eject him in 2012!!
west on April 11 at 7:14 p.m.
Good reading here folks..no wonder Oly is broke..
http://www.seattlepi.com/data/databases/state-salaries.asp
JBlim on April 11 at 10:54 p.m.
give an example, west, what positions get too much?
and why stop at employees, why not slash what is paid to the state suppliers?
woodworker on April 12 at 9:43 a.m.
All I have to say is the people of this state elected Gregoire and her bunch of “merry men/women” to office, so the people are just reaping the folly of their votes.
Maybe next election, they will think twice about putting democrats in charge of anything other than the dog pound.
JBlim on April 12 at 7:15 p.m.
Yeah, wood, Arnold “IOU” Schwarzenegger had all the answers, didn’t he . . .
chump on April 15 at 10:16 a.m.
Lol! The Socialist Republic of Washington is clawing at the cliff face, dispatching more armed men to plunder resource from families.
All this as news breaks that the federal debt has reached the annual GDP! lol! awesome!
They’re going to reap what they’ve sown- we all are.