"It's Going to Be a Bumpy Ride"
On Friday, Washington State Wire ran a story on the volatility of the income tax on high earners that is proposed in Initiative 1098. No matter what you think of the merits of an income tax per se, this particular proposal is untenable — especially given Washington’s current budget situation. Erik Smith writes, High earner […]
August 20 , 2010 - Emily Makings
Taxing the Rich
A Forbes.com article from yesterday looks at how the federal government and some states are considering increasing taxes on the wealthy. It includes a discussion of Initiative 1098 in Washington. This and other articles on the initiative (see Dick Davis’ recent post for some examples) highlight some of the negative consequences I-1098 would have on […]
August 13 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Dedicated Fund Transfers to the General Fund
Dick Davis has a piece in the Puget Sound Business Journal today on dedicated funds and the state budget. The first 4 paragraphs are available on the public portion of the PSBJ web site. (A subscription is required to read the whole thing.) Here is a table detailing transfers to and from the General Fund-State […]
August 12 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Washington's Business Tax Burden
We have published a brief, which is available here, on the business tax burden in Washington.
July 30 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
Arithmetic
Our intern, Nikolai Riabov, recently posted on this blog a table comparing state and local taxes by state based upon the Census Bureau’s 2008 survey of government finances. The state Department of Revenue has just released a research report—Comparative State and Local Taxes 2008—using this same data. DOR’s calculations agree with ours: For the Census […]
July 16 , 2010 - Emily Makings
Update: Comparative State and Local Taxes
The Census Bureau recently released the latest statistics on state and local taxes as part of its 2008 Survey of Government Finances. For 2007/2008, we have calculated that the per capita tax burden on the average Washingtonian was $4,354, while the amount of tax revenue collected per $1,000 of personal income was $105.49. Washington ranked […]
June 17 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
June Revenue Forecast
In its quarterly meeting this morning, the state Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) approved revised forecasts of general fund revenue for the 2009-11 and 2011-13 biennia. Meeting documents are available here. The general fund forecast for the current biennium is now $29,282 million ($29.3 billion). This is an increase of $558 million from the […]
June 14 , 2010 - Kriss Sjoblom
June Economic and Revenue Update
Last Friday, the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (EFRC) posted its monthly progress report, the Economic and Revenue Update, for June. The update sets the stage for Thursday, when EFRC will issue its quarterly update to the state revenue forecast. The U.S. economy has performed largely as anticipated in the February forecast, The economic recovery […]
June 01 , 2010 - Richard S. Davis
Times Editorial From Rasmussen's WRC Dinner Remarks: "Cynical Nation"
The Seattle Times draws on Scott Rasmussen's speech at the Research Council dinner for this excellent editorial. "People don't trust government projections," Rasmussen said. "Eighty-one percent believe that whatever the government says, it will cost more." Who is to say the people are wrong? If they believe this, they learned to believe it. The great […]
May 27 , 2010 - Richard S. Davis
A Great 78th Annual Meeting for the WRC
via www.washingtonstatewire.com Excellent coverage of Scott Rasmussen's speech in Washington State Wire.