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 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
Legislation to create a Tax Expenditure Budget as part of the regular biennial budget appropriations process has took a big step forward. Companion bills have been introduced in both the House and the Senate in the Washington State Legislature. They both had … Continue reading
Initiative 636 – the Tax Exemption Transparency and Accountability Act has received a ballot title from the Washington State Attorney General. According to Washington State’s Department of Revenue’s figures, tax expenditures account for as much spending as the state spends … Continue reading
Washington state’s tax system is broken. We have pressing state needs but do not fairly collect revenue to adequately fund needed state public services like education and health care. We rank in the bottom third of states in raising revenue. … Continue reading
Tax Sanity ( www.taxsanity.org ) on May 17, 2013 filed an Initiative to the Legislature to address the issue of Tax Loophole Reform. As noted in an article in Crossscut entitled Tax exemptions are starting to draw an uncomfortable spotlight: … Continue reading
The Washington Wire has printed a story entitled “Will this finally be the Year for a Loophole Initiative?” The story is about Tax Sanity’s efforts for tax loophole reform in Washington State – as Eric Smith notes, year after year … Continue reading
Tim Eyman’s latest proposed initiative continues his right wing libertarian approach to try to shut down state government. He is proposing to limit tax increases to one year and push for repeated votes at tax payer expense for minority rule … Continue reading
Tax expenditures are basically off budget spending. As one Washington State Legislator recently said, they are “gifts” of public money. They don’t have to be scrutinized the same as other state expenditures are when the biennial state budget is proposed … Continue reading
It is becoming more common these days to define a tax exemption, subsidy, loophole or exclusion as a tax expenditure. That can seem a little confusing until you understand what is happening. Catherine Rampell in an article entitled Tax Breaks: A … Continue reading
