Rep. Springer offers cap and trade proposal
The House Appropriations Committee held a hearing today on a carbon tax bill proposed by Representative Larry Springer. This cap and trade bill would be a substitute to SHB 1314, which was passed out by the House Committee on Environment on February 12. We described the latter bill in our special report Carbon Taxation. Compared […]
May 14 , 2015 - Emily Makings
Sundry links: capital gains tax, data centers, and tourism
Jared Walczak of the Tax Foundation writes about proposals to tax capital gains here in Washington, and links to our report on Gov. Inslee’s proposal. TechFlash reports that CenturyLink has decided to locate a new data center in Grant County. We wrote about the economic impact of data centers on central Washington in 2013. Further […]
May 12 , 2015 - Lew Moore
New Debate Over Aerospace Tax Incentive Deal
The debate has exploded once again over the failed bill which would have added new employment level requirements to the 2013 aerospace tax incentive agreement. Last week the venue was the Seattle Times editorial pages. First up, labor advocates Jon Holden and Ryan Rule, who lament a 3.5 percent decrease in Boeing jobs since 2013, […]
April 22 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
Pew report: volatile capital gains contribute to declining accuracy of state revenue forecasts
The Washington Post’s GovBeat blog highlights a report out of the Pew Charitable Trusts on the declining accuracy of state revenue forecasts: For the past 27 years, states have gotten worse and worse at forecasting revenue, according to a recent report. But don’t blame the forecasters, the authors say. Errors became larger from 1987 to […]
April 22 , 2015 - Emily Makings
April 20 , 2015 - 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 […]
April 20 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
New policy brief: Levy Swap: Tax Increases, Tax Reductions, Unanswered Questions
We have posted a new policy brief titled: Levy Swap: Tax Increases, Tax Reductions, Unanswered Questions Briefly Levy swap: court-required state funding to replace local dollars to finance basic k-12 education. A state property tax increase to fund a levy swap is proposed by Sen. Dammeier, Rep. Hunter. A uniform statewide property tax hike to […]
April 17 , 2015 - Emily Makings
April 16 , 2015 - Kriss Sjoblom
“Levy swap” proposals surface
The Seattle Times has a story about three legislative proposals to reduce reliance on local school property tax levies that emerged on Wednesday: State lawmakers Wednesday put forth three competing proposals to address part of a court mandate for K-12 education that would reduce schools’ reliance on local tax levies. … The three tax-levy proposals […]
April 16 , 2015 - Emily Makings