Testimony in support of HB 1500 – the Tax Exemption Transparency and Accountability Act Washington State House Finance Committee, Jan. 31, 2017 Steve Zemke – Tax Sanity Thank you for this opportunity to testify on this legislation. This is … Continue reading
End Tax Exemptions as Off-Budget Spending by Adding Them as Tax Expenditures to the State Budget! Washington State HB 1500 -the Tax Exemption Transparency and Accountability Act of 2017 will have a hearing in the State House Finance Committee on Tues. Jan … Continue reading
Tax Exemption Transparency and Accountability Act 2017 Representative Gerry Pollet and Senator David Frockt are filing updated versions of the Tax Exemption and Transparency Act that we filed in previous sessions of the Washington State Legislature. In the 2015 – … Continue reading
The Washington State Constitution currently says that a majority vote of our state Legislators is required to pass legislation. That means that 50% of the members of the Washington State House of Representatives and 50% of the members of the … Continue reading
The Washington State Democrats have urged voters to reject Initiative 1366. At their April 12, 2015 meeting in Pasco Washington they passed a resolution opposing Tim Eyman’s Initiative 1366. Initiative 1366, according to a May 17, 2015 Seattle Times article … Continue reading
At a special hearing in Olympia representing Washington residents from all 49 legislative districts on May 4, 2015 the voices were loud and clear about the need for tax reform. Washington State for a number of years has earned the unfortunate … Continue reading
Initiative 1366 is Tim Eyman’s 2015 initiative campaign to protect the wealthy and corporations in Washington State. It is both an appeal to greed and a guaranteed way to prevent reforming Washington State’s regressive tax system. Initiative 1366 is an … Continue reading
In a ruling today, March 2, 2015, Brad Owen, the Lt Governor and presiding officer of the Senate did the right thing. He ruled that the Senate rule passed by the Republicans in the Washington State Senate earlier this year to require a … Continue reading
Tax preferences and tax incentives are called tax expenditures by most other states and the US Congress – they are revenue that is not collected. Not collecting this revenue from certain taxpayers is a form of picking winners and losers and the end … Continue reading
Tax Exemption Transparency and Accountability Act 2015–HB 1239 & SB 5492 Tax exemptions, preferences, deductions, credits and deferrals are off budget expenditures. They lack the accountability and transparency that exists for other expenditures the state makes as part of the … Continue reading