After years of a few lawmakers flirting with the idea of a state income tax, key lawmakers now say they’re seriously considering it as a way to help the cash-strapped state budget in the long term.
A possible state income tax on people earning $500,000 or more a year, “would mean that 19 out of 20 people in Washington state would not be affected at all,” said Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane. “…We don’t want people who are middle class families or struggling even more than that to pay more in taxes.”
The percentage of such a tax — or even whether lawmakers will push ahead with it — has yet to be determined, Brown said. And it’s not a sure thing that lawmakers will actually push ahead with the plan. House Speaker Frank Chopp said today that he wants to see polling data to see if voters agree with the concept.
“The key is what would the public support,” said Chopp. But he noted that voters in 2006 strongly rejected a measure that would have repealed Washington’s estate tax, which applies only to estates worth $2 million or more.
“I’m for whatever the public will support in terms of this,” said Chopp. “And they might be open to that.”
