A
Tax System Agenda That’s Fair and Funds Public Services for
Washington’s Citizens
“I recently spoke with a healthcare worker who explained
– ‘People like me pay 16% of our income on state and local
taxes. The richest people in our state pay only 4% of their income,
and now we want to give them another tax loophole? We need to make
corporations start paying their fair share, so we can ensure quality
care for the elderly and disabled and invest in our schools.’
I believe it’s time to stand up for a new tax system in the
state that distributes the state’s tax burden fairly to all
taxpayers: without gouging those least able to pay, without giving
tax-breaks to unknown special interests, and which strengthens the
magnets for economic development – high quality public services
in education, healthcare, transportation, safety and communication.”
As your legislator I will work to…
• Fully disclose all the state’s corporate tax-breaks.
The 2004 Legislature handed out hundreds of millions of dollars in
tax breaks to high-tech research and development corporations. With
my opponent’s support, the Legislature voted to keep information
on which companies receive these tax-breaks confidential, keeping
voters in the dark as to which companies receive public subsidies,
and how much. Is it fair that voters have to guess which corporations
receive tax waivers? I’ll stand up to make all corporate
tax-break expenditures transparent to all citizens of the state.
• Make corporations accountable for the state tax-breaks
they receive. Tax-breaks for high-tech firms are awarded
to help companies stimulate economic development and create jobs.
It’s only fiscally responsible to require a reliable accounting
of corporate tax-break effectiveness. With my opponent at the wheel,
the Legislature failed to require any business-like reporting on tax-break
results. Unlike other states, we have no reliable mechanism for evaluating
the effectiveness of high-tech tax-breaks. This gives the high-tech
sector a free pass on corporate tax-break accountability. I’ll
strive to establish a simple but strong reporting mechanism for evaluating
the effectiveness of high-tech tax-breaks and to terminate those that
produce little of their intended results.
• Limit the growth of state corporate tax-breaks.
Under
my opponent’s watch, new corporate tax-breaks have been increasingly
enacted since 1990 to support private sector industries or companies.
The recent $3.2 billion Boeing tax-break package was the largest in
state history. Yet there’s little reliable information on the
effectiveness of corporate tax-breaks. A recent report by the state’s
Department of Revenue says that most firms taking tax-break credits
haven’t created new products or services, and only a “very
few“ firms relocated here due to tax-break credits. Nation-wide,
state-level tax-breaks have had little if any positive effect on business
location, economic development and job creation. In fact, where corporate
tax-breaks have been financed by reductions in public services, they
have had a negative impact. I’ll work to limit and phase
out tax-breaks that deplete the public treasury and that require further
cuts in important public services.
• Reform our state tax system to make it fair for all
taxpayers. Of all the 50 states, Washington places its tax burden
most on the backs of those able to afford it the least. We
over-tax those with the smallest revenue base and don’t tax
profits. For our state tax system to be fair the sales tax needs to
be reduced, and a personal income tax based on ability to pay needs
to be introduced. Property taxes should be reduced, and B & O
taxes on gross business revenues need to be replaced with taxes on
business profits. I’ll work to create a tax system based
on ability to pay that will not only lower taxes for a very large
majority of citizens and small businesses, but will also pay for the
high-quality public services our citizens and businesses need.
