Re: Sales tax plan stirs to life in Olympia
By the closest possible margin, House Democrats’ sales-tax ballot measure has begun moving through the Legislature.
Over the strong objections of minority Republicans, the House Health and Human Services Appropriations Committee voted 8 to 7 in favor of a ballot proposition Tuesday that would ask voters for a temporary three-year boost of three-tenths of a percentage point in the state sales tax. That would up the sales tax rate from 6.5 percent to 6.8 percent.
The plan would raise over $1 billion. About 22 percent would be rebated to about 370,000 households that qualify for the federal Earned Income Tax Credit, and the rest would backfill some of the proposed cuts in the Basic Health Program, the subsized health insurance plan for the working poor; public health, mental health, hospitals, nursing home and so forth. (UPDATE: Before approving the plan, the committee changed the revenue split between tax relief and health care. The new language says 13.2 percent of the revenue would go to tax relief in the next two fiscal years and rise to 22 percent in FY2012. This means more money for health-care appropriations in the next two years.)
Democrats, including the prime sponsor, Chairman Eric Pettigrew of Seattle, described it as a critically needed source of revenue to patch some of the holes in the human services safety net. Republicans, joined later by Tim Eyman and other tax rebels at an opposition news conference, said people are barely coping with the deep recession and shouldn’t be asked to take on a greater tax burden. If the health care spending is so critical, it should be prioritized higher and included in the budget lawmakers are producing this week, they say.
As you might guess, the tax measure is quite controversial and it’s not clear whether it will pass the full Legislature. Adjournment deadline is Sunday. The Senate is reportedly quite cool on this plan and polls show the public vote would be dicey. GovGreg campaigned last year against tax hikes and has softened her position only a bit.
One thought on “Re: Sales tax plan stirs to life in Olympia”
I think this is a huge mistake. Seems like the government is always looking ways to take away the most important programs for the poor and underemployed and then say – oh you can keep these programs as long as its okay to raise taxes. How about cutting some of the things that aren’t really needed. Such as raises for the politicians, parks, beautification projects – I’m sure there’s a million. I don’t think anyone has looked deep enough into this budget. I really resent the fact that the poorest are always threatened by “cuts” when the capitol wants more money. This up in sales taxes will also hurt the people in other counties whose sales taxes are already higher – people will even spend less and I thought the idea was to get people to spend to help the economy. Which is it? Take away more of my money and I have less to buy extras with, much less food and utilities. I think this needs to be gone through again – and better cuts found. But what do I know I’m only a hardworking, small town person, just trying to make it through life. If this passes I can guarantee I won’t be voting for a single one of those politicians in the years to come. Eyman is right this time!
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