Sen. Lisa Brown just held a TV media availability in her office. Here’s what she had to say:

Tags: income tax

Sen. Rosa Franklin was the first to testify to the Ways and Means Committee on the bill to create a high-earners income tax.  “I worry a lot about the future of our state. Will we be the state of progress and leave it a little better than we found it?” She said this plan would “give the public the ultimate say,” because “taxpayers get to choose the tax option they feel makes sense for the citizens of this great state of Washington.”

She said the bill is a start, but not a magic bullet.

Sen. Joe Zarelli said California has a sales tax and an income tax. “Do you believe that the current state of things is more reflective of the economy and spending decisions” or the tax structure?

Franklin said budgets are built not just on spending. “Someone always brings up the state of California — they have got both but yet they have a deficit. That is true. As I said, this is not a magic bullet.” But, she said, it’s a beginning toward reforming the tax system.

He asked if that meant she wanted a statewide income tax. She said she wants to let the people decide.

Sen. Ed Murray said $16 trillion disappeared from the world economy during the recession, and that’s the reason for the budget crisis. “Our sales tax is the most regressive in the country. We tax the poor … while the wealthiest people in this state pay less than people who make very little. As Bill Gates, Sr. has said several times, he wants to be taxed, he wants to pay his fair share.”

Sen. Mike Carrell said the state Constitution requires uniform taxing. Franklin said the bill would likely require a Constitutional amendment.

Tags: income tax

“Best of all, it allows us to make the tough decisions we need to make in Olympia right now while allowing voters to decide whether to fundamentally change our tax system,” Sen. Margarita Prentice said, opening up the hearing. She said sometimes a crisis presents an opportunity.

Sen. Cheryl Pflug quoted an editorial by Gov. Chris Gregoire in which she said “now’s not the time” to create an income tax.

Prentice replied, “I think we’re all conscious of the separation of powers … and that she isn’t our boss.”

Here’s how this would all work: The Legislature would vote to immediately implement a three-year sales tax increase of three-tenths of a cent. In the next election, voters would choose whether they wanted to roll back the sales tax to 5.5 percent and implement a 4.5 percent high-earner income tax.

The tax would apply to:

- Single people on every dollar over $200,000

- Heads of household on every dollar over $300,000

- Married, dual earners on every dollar over $400,000

If the voters passed the referendum, the sales tax would drop once the temporary sales tax increase expires.

Tags: income tax

Today at 4:30, the Senate Ways & Means Committee is holding a hearing on this bill, to institute an income tax.

The bill would require voters to approve the income tax in the November elections.

I’ll be liveblogging the committee and, depending on House floor action, it will/could also be live on TVW. Of course, everything is live at TVW.org.

Update: Sen. Lisa Brown just wrote a post on her blog about a plan to put the sales tax increase to voters and let them decide whether to lower the sales tax by half a percent but create a high-earners income tax — or stick with the 3 cent increase.

Here’s a snippet:

“1. The Legislature passes the temporary sales tax increase, which would go into effect immediately to help alleviate our state’s looming cash-flow problem.

2.  It would also pass a referendum to the people, giving them the opportunity in November to repeal not just that three-tenths-of-a-cent increase, but an additional half-cent off the state sales tax – taking the state rate down to 6 cents, a level not seen in thirty years.

3. In its place would go a high earners’ income tax of 4.5 percent on all income over $200,000 for individuals, $300,000 for heads of households, and $400,000 for married couples.”

Tags: income tax

Sen. Lisa Brown said the idea behind the income tax “isn’t to fool anybody,” she said. She said the idea isn’t to start out for high-earners and then move down to middle- and low-income families.

She said middle class and low-income families already pay their share of taxes and that the budget cuts and existing sales tax over the next two years would mean that those residents would be disproportionately negatively affected.

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles said she’s introducing a bill today or tomorrow to add a sales tax to candy and gum. The money would go toward children’s healthcare and immunizations.

She told reporters to keep in mind that any bills introduced this session are alive next session. She said she didn’t expect her bill to have any success this year.

Tags: Budget, income tax, tax

On the budget, Sen. Lisa Brown said the agreement reached last night is “responsible” and uses the money the state plans to get in the next biennium responsibly.

“It’s seen, as itself, the best budget that we could put forward at this point in time,” Brown said.

On questions about the House’s efforts to pass a sales tax increase, Brown said she’s not sure if it will pass the House and not sure that it would get a vote in the Senate if it did.

Tags: Budget, income tax

“Even if an income tax brings in a net same amount of money, it’s a more progressive tax base,” Sen. Joe McDermott said.

“An income tax is not a panacea,” he said, citing the 47 states around the country that have shortfalls this year.

Sen. Lisa Brown said there’s a “big diversity of opinion” in the caucus. “By putting forward a proposal of a high-earners or sometimes called a ‘millionaires tax,’ our goal is not to single out or target our more affluent citizens,” she said, but to give them “a chance to not send all their tax dollars to Washington, D.C.”

Tags: income tax

Sen. Adam Kline said many high-earners are supportive of such a tax.

“There are many, many people, and I believe the trend is favorable … who are beginning to understand … that the burden of the tax system is on low-income people.”

Kline said he believes there’s a shift of thought on income tax as people realize the tax burden is on lower-income families.

Tags: income tax

“My bill would impose a 1 percent income tax on very wealthy individuals in our state,” she said: Single-earners who make more than $500,000 would be taxed 1 percent on the amount over that bar. “We go up from there with regard to heads of household and dual-earners.”

“What’s important here is that we are facing voting on a budget that is basically all cuts, will have extremely deleterious consequences on some in our state who are most in need of services,” she said, “yet the very wealthy will not face an impact because of our budget.”

She said it’s time that “we recognize this for what it is and that we make some structural reform.”

Though Brown said the effor is dead this year, Kohl-Welles said she will be working on it until Sine Die this year.

Tags: income tax

Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles: “As you likely know I introduced Senate Bill 6147 this year … we all know that we have one of the most regressive tax structures in the country,” she said. “About 50 percent of our revenue does come from sales tax … which has the most negative effect on lower income” people, she said.

“I don’t know how many millionaires we have in our state,” she said, “but there are plenty.”

Kohl-Welles said Washington is only one of a handful of states — maybe 7 — without a personal or corporate income tax.

Tags: income tax