Updated: House passed tax package

The House passed their tax package last night, 52 to 45. Read the bill here. And read some of the debate below.

Rep. Ross Hunter: “As you’re aware, we face a difficult supplemental budget. Our job is to produce a balanced budget. In fact, it’s a legal requirement,” he said. “It’s also important that we have a balanced budget that meets a moral definition of balanced,” he said. He said the package closes exemptions that have been in place for decades and no longer make economic sense. “The revenue from this part of the package funds core services.

Rep. Ed Orcutt: “I don’t think we have exhausted all opportunities and I don’t think that the gentleman from the 48th has listed all the options,” he said. He said the Legislature hasn’t taken reform seriously enough. “It’s unfortunate that we haven’t taken that road, because that’s a win-win road. Here, we’re pitting the taxpayer against the tax taker.”

Rep. Larry Haler said he is opposed to the candy tax because it will affect Washington-based businesses like Almond Roca and Liberty Orchards.

Rep. Jay Rodne: “There has been no attempt, Mr. Speaker, to really look at structural reform of our budget,” he said. He said failure to look at reform has led to legislators saying they must choose between “kids and healthcare and forgo our commitments to our communities and our future or raise taxes.” “We’re going to come back here next year and the situation will be of a much greater magnitude.”

Rep. Kevin Parker: “My fear is, this is not a credible plan to balance the budget,” he said. “This budget is a stew that is undigestible to the stomach of Washington.” He said Washington has high unemployment and low consumer confidence — and that means it’s not the time for a big tax increase.

Rep. Larry Springer: “I’ve been in business for 30 years … and in order to do that, I’ve had to have one primary objective,” he said: Cash flow. “And in fact, I have been able to maintain that cash flow by competing,” he said. “What I hope to see out of this package is the realization from my government that while I’m not afraid of competition … I would like that fight to be fair,” he said. Thsi tax proposal does that, he said, because it eliminates tax exemptions for out-of-state business.

Rep. Norm Johnson said he doesn’t think elective cosmetic surgeries should not be taxes. “Maybe this is something that maybe should come out of this bill because I think we need to be thinking about the human aspects of people who face surgery,” he said. He said many people who choose to have plastic surgery have a reason for doing so.

Rep. Eileen Cody: “I just have to correct some misinformation here,” she said. “We are talking about cosmetic surgery …not reconstructive surgery.”

Rep. Bill Hinkle: “I am so sick of hearing the fair share of taxes,” he said. “There’s nothing fair about what we’re doing here. In fact, I would submit to you that we’re killing people here … we’re creating winners and losers.” He said he can’t believe some of the things they’re considering taxing. “Is this the best you got? I mean, I ask you. This cannot be the best we’ve got for Washington state.”

Rep. Sam Hunt quoted the preamble of Initiative 960. It says the government consistently receives revenue growth. “Obviously times change,” he said. “And that is one reason why we have suspended the initiative.” He said the state needs the money to provide K-12 education, to take care of foster kids and more. He also read a quote from The Olympian’s pro-tax (and pro-cuts) editorial. “It’s not only the right thing to do, it is the moral thing to do,” he read.

Rep. Dan Roach said he could read “10 articles from 10 different papers to refute that,” but his focus was the claim from some that this bill would “level the playing field.” He said that’s not the case and that the taxes will hurt many in-state businesses. “My question, Mr. Speaker, as we look to the future, how are we going to balance our future budgets?”

Rep. Ruth Kagi: “I’d like to go back to what we have done,” she said, because someone said the state hasn’t made any cuts. “We cut 45,000 residents from the Basic Health Plan last year. We cut 728,” she said, adding that teachers in their district have told her they miss the support they used to have and their classrooms are much bigger. “We have cut adult day health. We cut nursing homes. We have gotten sued” over those cuts, she said. “We couldn’t pass an all-cuts budget again. This is a balanced approach. It’s not a vote any of us want to take.”

Rep. Jan Angel: “I’m devastated by what I see happening on this floor this evening, Mr. Speaker. We’re talking about people in need — you haven’t even started to see the people in need in this state,” she said. She said the bill will cause unemployment to increase. “We’ve talked about tonight that this state is a… sales tax state. Well if it is a sales tax state, you have to have consumers and we won’t have consumers because there aren’t jobs, there isn’t disposable income,” she said.

Rep. Kelli Linville: “This biennium, we have balanced revenues 4 to 1,” she said. “Last year, we passed an all-cuts budget … so when I entered this legislative session, though in my 17 years I have never taken a tax vote like this,” she said she knew this would be the year she’d have to vote on a tax. “Tonight, we will move this bill forward and I will vote for it because we have passed a budget that requires us to raise revenue,” she said.

Rep. Bruce Chandler: “We adopted a budget in the House … that reduced spending 1 percent,” he said, from the budget passed a year ago. “We’re missing the opportunity to change the way state government works,” he said. “This is the time, Mr. Speaker, this is the time to say we put this bill aside and we take a serious look at a collaborative, negotiated reform.”

Rep. Fred Finn: “There’s a difference between the public and the private sector,” he said. “The purpose of the public sector is really to provide services. And in order to provide those services, we need revenues,” he said. “We have had for the first time in 51 years a budget that’s smaller” than the previous year’s.

Rep. Mike Armstrong: “$900 million is a big number,” he said, “I want to put it in terms that we all get pretty easy back home. It’s $105 for every man, woman and child in the state of Washington.” For his family, that’s $525. He said that may not seem like a lot until you try to raise a family on one salary.

Tags: tax