In a new policy brief, we look at a proposed “tax expenditure budget.” PSHB 1703 would expire tax preferences (the state’s collective term for exemptions, exclusions, deductions, deferrals, credits, and preferential tax rates) unless they are readopted by the Legislature each biennium as part of a “tax expenditure budget.”

Washington’s current tax preference review process is already recognized as one of the nation’s best, and no other state requires tax preferences to be readopted every two years. Requiring nearly all tax preferences to be readopted every two years would introduce considerable uncertainty for taxpayers, seriously weaken the four-year balanced budget requirement and not effectively improve tax policy in Washington.

Read the report here.