$26 Million In Tax Cuts Going To ‘Regular People’

Thu., March 12, 1998

Associated Press

Businesses that sell soda pop are probably getting a handsome tax cut, and so are horse-race tracks, coin-operated laundries, hospice groups, movie house popcorn purveyors and old folks.

By tonight’s adjournment, the Republican Legislature will have sent Democratic Gov. Gary Locke about $26 million worth of tax cuts in nearly 50 different bills aimed at selected interests.

Their impact on the treasury is relatively paltry, but the reductions will mean a lot to those who get them. Lawmakers expect Locke to sign off on most, if not all, of the proposals.

The big tax relief, which comes not surprisingly in an election year, is aimed straight at Joe and Suzie Sixpack - a $257 million reduction in the annual car tax that will lower every motorist’s bill by $30 per car per year.

Voters in November will get the final say on this reduction after lawmakers wrapped it into a referendum to finance a $2.4 billion plan for highway construction. Locke had promised to veto the financing package, but supports the car-tax reduction.

“The big tax cut this year goes to regular people, not to business,” said Senate Ways and Means Chairman Jim West, R-Spokane, noting that business got multi-million dollar tax reductions in the previous three years.

Legislative tax-cutting generosity is rooted partly in the fact that the state has enjoyed a growing revenue surplus.

With a few exceptions, the $26 million in selected tax cuts this year have drawn little heat.

Everybody agreed, for example, that senior citizens should get a boost in their property tax exemptions and deferrals, that people who buy popcorn at the show shouldn’t have to pay an extra sales tax, and that hospices, which care for dying people, should get a break on their business and occupation tax.

But there was some grumbling over a $4 million a year reduction in the soda pop tax. The proposal allows businesses that pay the $1-a-gallon tax on soda pop syrup to credit half of that tax against their business and occupation tax bill.

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