The ongoing health and economic crisis is going to force difficult budget decisions, and it is the responsibility of our State Legislature to ensure a strong, equitable plan for recovery – a plan that protects families, small businesses, and communities. We should take this moment to make the direly needed bold reform to our tax structure.
Washington state has the most regressive tax structure in the nation. Households who earn less than $25k a year pay 17% of their income in taxes while those over $500k pay less than 2%. The state relies on property taxes, sales taxes, B&O and a handful of others but this burden lies primarily on working class families.
We support a more equitable tax structure so all communities get a chance to thrive.
Specifically, we support a capital gains tax but also want to lower property tax, sales tax and B&O for small businesses. Also, we would examine the more than 650 tax exemptions on the books (which add up to more than the budget) to ensure our dollars are being invested appropriately.
I also support a state bank that would help harvest some of the $2.3 billion dollars of taxpayer money currently being sent to Wall St. in interest expenses.
Our regressive tax structure is the root cause for many issues we deal with in this state and it is imperative it is fixed.