Blog

As part of her 2020 budget proposal, Seattle mayor would add a new tax on Uber, Lyft

Earlier this week Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan proposed a city budget for 2020. The Seattle Times reports, “The mayor’s proposed budget calls for $6.5 billion in total spending in 2020, including infrastructure projects and $1.5 billion in general-fund allocations for basic services such as parks maintenance and policing.” The mayor does not propose major spending […]

Notes from today’s ERFC meeting: exports down, cannabis and REET activity, budget outlook accuracy

Today’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) meeting included a report from the budget outlook workgroup on the outlook’s accuracy and a presentation from ERFC executive director Steve Lerch on the economic outlook. The economic review (beginning on page 19 of the pdf) notes that the preliminary economic forecast for Washington is “very similar” to […]

Tariffs, tariffs, tariffs

Last week, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) released “An Update to the Budget and Economic Outlook: 2019 to 2029.” In a follow-up on Thursday, a CBO analyst wrote about how tariffs factored in to the new economic projections. Specifically, higher trade barriers—in particular, increases in tariff rates—implemented by the United States and its trading partners […]

Forecasting sin tax revenue can be complicated

The Pew Charitable Trusts has a new paper about how states are forecasting revenues from marijuana taxes: “Forecasting revenue from a product that was illegal just a few years ago, and remains so under federal law and in most states, presents a unique challenge for state budget planning.” The table below (from the report) compares […]

Based on Washington’s experience, a carbon tax probably wouldn’t pass by initiative in any state

In 2016 and 2018, Washington voters rejected ballot initiatives that would have imposed carbon taxes. (Here are our policy briefs on I-732 and I-1631.) The 2016 version aimed to be revenue neutral, while the 2018 version would have increased state revenues. Howard Gleckman of the Tax Policy Center points to a new study that considers […]

In long-term care policy, Washington is out on its own

An article in Stateline today looks at options for paying for long-term care and includes a roundup of state activity on the topic. Of course, Washington adopted a public long-term care insurance program this year that will be funded with a payroll tax (we wrote about it in a recent policy brief). Other states are […]

Seattle income tax headed to the state Supreme Court

In July 2017, the City of Seattle enacted a high earners income tax. The tax would apply only to residents of the city and not to people who work in the city but do not reside there. The amount of tax would be equal to 2.5 percent of annual income in excess of $250,000 for […]

New policy brief: Long-Term Care and Paid Family and Medical Leave: A Tale of Two Payroll Taxes

The Legislature has enacted two major payroll taxes in the last two years. Payroll taxes fund both a new long-term care insurance program that was enacted this year (the first in the nation) and the paid family and medical leave program that was adopted in 2017. The long-term care insurance premiums will be 0.58 percent […]

A new national taxpayer roadmap shows how complicated tax administration can be

The Taxpayer Advocate Service has a new illustration of the U.S. tax system, in the style of a subway map. As it makes obvious, the tax system is complicated. As the press release notes, the map “shows why the road to tax compliance isn’t always easy to navigate.” And this is just the federal system. […]

Happy Fiscal New Year!

Today is the first day of fiscal year 2020 and the first day of the 2019–21 biennium. It’s a good time to review the biennial budget. The operating budget for 2019–21 (accounting for vetoes) appropriates $52.873 billion from funds subject to the outlook and the workforce education investment account. For more on the budget (as […]