Emily Makings

An income tax for education?

Last week state Superintendent Randy Dorn released a $2.2 billion education spending proposal. Today state Treasurer Jim McIntire proposed a way to pay for that new spending. His proposal would: Eliminate the state property tax, lower regular property tax limits, and limit excess local school levies; Set the B&O rate at 1.0 percent for business […]

The Health Benefit Exchange and the 2015-17 budget

Both the House and Senate 2015-17 operating budget proposals would provide additional funding for the Health Benefit Exchange (HBE). As I’ve written, the HBE budget depends partially on its enrollment numbers, which were not as high as the HBE had hoped. Along with the 2 percent tax on premiums, other sources of income are a […]

Policy Today: House Capital Gains Tax Proposal

How to get around the unfunded mandate of I-1351?

Budget writers agree that Initiative 1351 should not be funded. This is easier said than done. (Like true love, the course of budget writing never did run smooth.) I-1351 requires class size reductions for grades K-12, while the McCleary decision requires class size reductions only for grades K-3. The Legislature is already working on that […]

In Focus this week: Cigarette taxes, monthly collections report, and state sales tax comparison

Policy Today: Transportation Update

The impact of higher cigarette taxes

Jan Teague of the Washington Retail Association had an op-ed in the Everett Herald yesterday on the implications of increasing the state cigarette tax. (Gov. Inslee included an increase in his budget proposal.) Teague writes about the impact on retailers: Cigarettes are also the top revenue generator for many small businesses, accounting for nearly 32 […]

New brief: 2015-17 Operating Budget: Spending Priorities

We have a new policy brief comparing the House- and Senate-passed operating budgets. Briefly: A better economy is expected to bring in an additional $3 billion in revenue. The House-passed budget increases spending by more than $5 billion over 2013– 15. The Senate-passed budget increases spending by more than $4 billion over 2013– 15. Policy […]

Carbon taxation in the offing?

Apparently some form of carbon taxation could still happen this year, despite the fact that it did not make it into either House or Senate budget proposal. It was a main source of revenue in Gov. Inslee’s proposed budget, but the House proposal would increase revenues in different ways. From Crosscut: House Environment Committee chair […]

Renovations for Seattle's PacMed Center costlier than anticipated

Interesting story from the Seattle Times on the saga of the PacMed Center in Seattle. (It’s the lovely and a bit imposing building that sits atop the hill just south of I-90 and east of I-5.) It fell on hard times after Amazon left in 2011, and in 2013 the state decided to lease it […]