The Washington State House Takes Up The Issue of An Income Tax

Chris Cargill is the Eastern Washington Director of the Washington Policy Center (a political think tank) and he's our weekly watchdog on the State Legislature.

Since the session began, our Monday conversations have routinely included the observation that lawmakers were inching closer and closer to passing a "State Income Tax" in the form of a 7% tax on capital gains for certain high dollar earners.

Now let's set aside for a moment the fact that an income tax is unconstitutional in Washington State and that voters have rejected changing that ten different times and let's even consider that Supreme Courts of the past have basically said to the legislature "quit asking!" and yet the legislature bravely soldiers on proclaiming "we need the money".  Under the current plan, only about 9-thousand tax returns would be affected but critics are pretty sure that a democrat driven success here would be the proverbial "camel's nose in the tent" meaning it's just a matter of time before a statewide income tax comes for us all!

The Senate passed the notion 25 to 24 and now it's in the hands of the House of Representative with a public hearing scheduled for today.  SO what about that claim of needing more money?  Chris Cargill says the State has more money coming in now  than the Coronavirus crises predictors first predicted! The left may claim we need more money but there is currently enough State revenue to fund a budget covering all of the State's present obligations.  In addition, a State revenue update is due out Wednesday and it's expected to show there's even more money coming in to State coffers.

So what's the deal Chris?