Democrats Push New Tax-Cut Plan Small Businesses Would Benefit

House minority Democrats on Tuesday asked lawmakers to pass business-tax cuts that give more back to small businesses than to big corporations.

But Senate Majority Leader Sid Snyder, D-Long Beach, said his House colleagues are too late, and a Republican House leader questioned their motives.

The Republican House and Democrat-led Senate both are poised to override Gov. Mike Lowry’s veto Monday of a $130 million reduction in the business and occupation tax.

House Democrats, a tiny minority in that chamber, say that measure offers 68 percent of its relief to businesses grossing more than $1 million. They are putting forth a revised plan that would shift the varying B&O rates in the bill to give 72 percent of the relief to businesses grossing less than $1 million.

House Minority Leader Marlin Appelwick, D-Seattle, said the plan provides tax reductions for all service-tax categories. “If you own a beauty shop, a real-estate office or another general service and you gross less than $1 million, you’re going to do much better under our plan than under the vetoed bills,” he said.

But the proposal appears to have no chance of passage.

“If their plan would have been on the table a month or six weeks ago, it would have received serious consideration,” Snyder said after a news conference by his fellow Democrats in the House. “To change the scenario now would create a real uproar, especially if we want to get a tax cut that would be effective next Jan. 1.”

Snyder said the Senate will override Lowry’s veto of the original tax bill today or Friday. The House will quickly follow suit, said Speaker Clyde Ballard, R-East Wenatchee.

But House Democrats argue that even with the uproar and delay the proposal could cause, their idea is “a no-brainer,” in the words of Rep. Mary Lou Dickerson, D-Seattle.

“My constituents tell me, ‘Sure. A bigger break for small and medium-sized businesses makes sense,”’ she said.

House Finance Chairman Brian Thomas, R-Renton, asked, “Where have they (House Democrats) been for the last three years?

“I just find it rather amusing that during an election year, House Democrats have suddenly seen the light that tax relief for families and businesses is a good thing,” Thomas said.