Andrew Garber reports that Governor Inslee will propose “closing some tax loopholes” to fund education. (He has yet to announce which “loopholes” he’s talking about.) On TVW this morning, the governor said,

I was very clear that the way we should move forward to fund our schools and improve our education is rather than from general new taxes we ought to in fact close some of these illicit, unwarranted, obsolete, unfair corporate loopholes that are putting the burden on regular consumers and people going to work rather than corporations that ought to be picking up their fair share.

Last month, we published “Leveling the Playing Field with Tax Preferences.” As we note in that policy brief, businesses in Washington paid 56.8 percent of all taxes received by state and local governments in fiscal year 2011.

Further, the high tax burden Washington businesses already have would be even higher if it weren’t for tax preferences. As we show in the policy brief, many of these preferences are important in that they normalize our tax structure. Our conclusion:

Tax preferences, to use the state’s terminology, are not unwarranted boons for business; rather, many serve to normalize Washington’s tax structure or correct market failures. As we’ve written, “A careful analysis of business tax preferences makes clear that the vast majority of them have been adopted to offset disincentives, reduce distortions, avoid ‘pyramiding,’ and create a level playing field for in-state enterprises.”