Blog

A Tax Preference is Not a Loophole

TaxVox (the blog of the Tax Policy Center) has a good post today on tax “loopholes.”  The author, Eric Toder, is responding to the faulty yet widespread use of “loopholes” as a synonym for “tax expenditures” at the federal level, but it certainly corresponds to the debate here in Washington as the legislature considers the […]

New Brief: Reforming Public Pensions

In Reforming Public Pensions, we look at the current state of Washington’s public pension system and the methods of calculating unfunded liabilities in these plans.  The good news is that Washington is in much better shape than most other states.  The bad news is that all states are probably understating their unfunded liabilities by assuming […]

Moderate Democrats get workers' compensation reform bill moving again

Yesterday’s move by moderate Democrats in the House to amend the bipartisan workers’ compensation reform bill passed by the Senate has revived prospects for legislative success in the waning days of the legislative session. This is an issue the Research Council has followed closely for a long time. Most recently, we published The Time Has […]

Register for our 79th Annual Dinner

The Washington Research Council's 2011 Annual Dinner will be held on June 7, at the Bellevue Club.  Kimberley Strassel, of the Wall Street Journal, is our speaker this year.  Details are available on our website. If you would like to sponsor a table, please contact DeDe McConnell at dede@researchcouncil.org or (206) 467-7088.  If you would […]

Senate Ways and Means Committee Passes Budget

Yesterday (April 15) the Senate Ways and Means Committee passed its version of an operating budget for the 2011–13 biennium. Amendments increased total NGFS+ appropriations for the biennium by $17 million compared to the committee Chair’s proposal. Of the $17 million net increase, $7 million was the result of technical amendments correcting errors in the […]

Tax Day column on assessing the tax burden

In my column in the Puget Sound Business Journal today I look at Tax Freedom Day, the level and distribution of the tax burden and how our state’s revenue structure compares with other states. It’s behind the firewall, so access is limited to subscribers. Here’s a sample. The tax discussion generally comes down to the […]

New Brief on Senate W&M Budget Proposal

We’ve worked through the Senate W&M Chair’s (and Ranking Member’s) 2011-13 budget proposal, and the resulting brief with the details is available here.  It includes comparisons to the House-passed budget, on which we also have a brief. The Senate W&M Chair’s proposal addresses the $5 billion plus shortfall in many of the same ways the […]

Revenue Collections for March 11–April 10 Period Exceed Forecast by $5.1 Million

The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council issued its monthly Economic & Revenue Update today. Here are the key takeaways:

Closing tax "loopholes" won't solve the state budget problem

Kriss and I draw on our Clarifying the Role of Tax Preferences policy brief for this article in Crosscut.In both pieces, we point out the state’s already high business tax burden and the importance of tax preferences in offsetting tax pyramiding (multiple taxation of transactions in the production cycle). We also note that many so-called […]

House Passes Budget

The House of Representatives today (Saturday, April 9) passed its version of the 2011-13 state operating budget. The House passed budget bill differed little from the version reported out of the House Ways and Means Committee on Wednesday. On Friday, 11 amendments were made to the House Ways and Means bill on the House floor. […]