Update: Senate passed tax bill

The Senate is starting debate on SB 6143 — their tax package. The package has some amendments, including one to drop the temporary sales tax increase from .3 to .2 percent.

Gov. Chris Gregoire was asked during a bill signing this afternoon if she would reject a sales tax, and she said there are too many moving pieces right now to make that call.

Update: The Senate just passed the amendment to drop the sales tax from .3 percent to .2 percent. Sen. Rosa Franklin said she’s opposed increasing the sales tax, but she can support a smaller increase — as long as it’s offset by the Working Families Tax Credit.

“This bill that we’re about to pass, prior to it we considered some amendments,” Sen. Joe Zarelli said. And in each case, senators argued that certain sectors should be exempt from the tax package because they’ll be hurt. He said it was interesting that they’d make the case for some sectors, but not others.  “This bill is going to cost (Alaska Airlines) approximately $2.4 million,” he said. “This is a very short-sighted approach to solving a very mid- to long-term problem.”

Sen. Jim Hargrove: “I’m not really excited about raising taxes … I passed out this little sheet here because I did a little calculation,” he said. “If you look at a 33 percent shortfall in our budget on this little sheet here … that’s the biggest shortfall we’ve had — ever,” he said. Most of the reductions have come through cuts, federal assistance and fund shifts, he said.

Sen. Mike  Hewitt: “This budget is going to be $2.2 billion more than the budget we passed just two years ago,” he said. He said the Republican caucus has a sign that says “We don’t have a revenue problem, we have a spending problem.” He said the sign has been up for five years.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug read from some letters she’d received from constituents. “Now is not the time to increase taxes on business and the public,” one person wrote.

Sen. Lisa Brown: “State government in Washington state balances our budget every year,” she said — including this year, the toughest time since the Great Depression. “I wish this package was larger and contained more structural reform,” she said, but “I’m proud that we’ve made modest reforms” in the package. She said some of those reforms will mean that small businesses will be better off and thousands of families will qualify for a state rebate for low-income families. She said families in the state will pay an average of $20 more to help balance the state’s budget.

Sen. Mark Schoessler: “The math here is kind of interesting,” he said. “Twelve billion dollars in cuts? No, it’s actually twelve billion dollars from the wish list… that’s Olympia math,” he said. “The majority has made the package a little bit better  today,” he said, but they’ve picked winners and losers, which isn’t fair.

Update: The Senate passed the bill. It now heads to the House.

Tags: tax