Arrow-right Camera
The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Eye On Olympia

High-earners income tax could backfire in court, conservative group suggests…

At the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, Mike Reitz comes up with an interesting scenario if an income tax bill is follows the format (if not the details) of the trial balloon offered by Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles.

In what I assume is an effort to get around Washington's constitutional ban on taxing people differently, the bill would levy a 1 percent state income tax on everyone...but allow you to deduct the first $500,000. Net effect: a tax on the wealthy.

All sides expect such a bill to face a court challenge. And Reitz raises this possibility:

If a court struck down the section of the bill listing the standard deductions, the rest of the bill could still survive -- which would require anyone with federal taxable income to pay the state's 1% income tax.



Short takes and breaking news from the Washington Legislature and the state capital.