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UPDATE: Taxes, the road not taken …

UPDATE: Taxes, the road not taken …

Remember the Oregon Legislature’s bold decision last month to boost taxes to help fill a multibillion-dollar budget gap?  Well, as predicted, the $733 million in personal and corporate tax hikes didn’t go over well with critics, who assailed the very idea of raising taxes during a deep recession. On Tuesday, a group called Oregonians Against Job-Killing Taxes filed referenda against the two tax bills.  They’re talking about spending $500k on the signature-gathering campaign. They need roughly 55,000 valid voter signatures by Sept. 25…

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Capitol Kibbles

Capitol Kibbles

Good news is relative in this town. The latest state tax-collection report says state tax receipts are down $2 million below the already awful projection adopted last month. But that’s virtually no change in a $30 billion budget and shows “the free-fall phase is over” and that Washington’s battered economy is getting some respite before it slowly recovers, the state’s chief economist, Arun Raha said. The Gov says “We are by no means out of the woods.” More glass-half full. People…

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Taxes: The road not taken …

Taxes: The road not taken …

It’s a tale of two states. Washington’s legislative session almost seems like ancient, painful history by now.  The Democratic-controlled Legislature and Democratic governor dealt with a $9 billion budget gap by spending cuts, hiring freezes and furloughs, federal dollars and various light-bulb snatches – but no general taxes, not even a referendum for funding popular programs like kids’ health and higher education. Nearly every facet of state government was cut or restrained.  Cuts take effect tomorrow.  Lawmakers finished on time, within 105…

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Sales tax plan stirs to life in Olympia

Sales tax plan stirs to life in Olympia

The long-expected ballot proposition for a November tax vote is on the move in the Washington Legislature. The plan, sponsored by Representative Eric Pettigrew and four Democratic colleagues, is for a three-tenths of a percentage point increase in the state sales tax — from 6.5 percent to 6.8 — during the calendar years 2010, 2011 and 2012. The tax would expire then unless extended by supermajority votes in the Legislature.  A quick explainer is here. The tax bump would raise about $1.1…

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Income tax votes, through the years …

Income tax votes, through the years …

Tax Day post #2:  As Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and others talk up the idea of a public vote on a flat-rate income tax on high-wage earners (say, $250k or $500k a year, or double that for joint filers), the state Elections Division has posted a recap of the five times that Washington voters have faced income tax ballot measures. The story starts back in 1932, during the Great Depression, with a statewide vote that overwhelmingly … well click here to find out more.

(Tea) Party like it’s 1773

(Tea) Party like it’s 1773

Getting into and out of the Legislative Building during the lunch hour today was much harder than usual. There was a big Tea Party going on outside. Today’s Tax Day Tea Party on the steps of the Legislative Building drew around 5,000, the largest crowd for a State Capitol rally in several years. Many of the people who came to Olympia waved signs or U.S. flags and shouted anti-tax slogans. Among the speakers were tax rebel Tim Eyman, KVI talk show…

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Is there a tax hike in your future?

Is there a tax hike in your future?

Governor Gregoire, who last December proposed closing the state budget gap with all cuts and no new taxes, says the  economy has since slid so much that it makes sense for lawmakers to be “looking at any and every option” for a possible tax package to take to the statewide ballot. At a news conference at the Capitol Monday, her no-new-taxes position seemed to thaw a bit. She said it makes sense for the Legislature to at least consider new revenue since the nearly…

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