In the current economic turmoil we still have to balance the budget, and we will.
The state is facing an imposing budget shortfall in the next cycle. I believe the shortfall can be closed entirely without raising taxes.
I will not support any general tax increases, whether they are excise taxes, property taxes or business and occupation taxes. The tax burden is already too great for property owners, small businesses and people on limited incomes.
I will not support any new type of tax. We are regrettably far off from comprehensive tax reform. As I have said before, no cherry picking allowed.
As we deal with the budget we will have to cut to the bone. Before looking at across-the-board cuts, we should:
- implement a hiring freeze
- reduce full-time equivalent (FTE) state employees
- cut non-essential programs
- cut state employees’ travel
- continue creating efficiencies in information technology spending through consolidation and standardization
- roll back tax breaks that have not proven their worth, and
- insist on a “best-practices” approach to the budget to ensure cost-effectiveness and accountability for taxpayer dollars.
If necessary, we may have to dip into the “Rainy Day” fund. It’s a good thing we had the foresight to put that mechanism in place!
Preserving Education Funding
As I visit the voters every day at their doors I meet many teachers and school employees who say, “I guess we’re not going to get a raise next year.” I am very averse to halting the growth in teacher compensation after we’ve just begun to make progress. A Washington state teacher still makes only half of a Pennsylvania teacher’s average salary. Voters are also telling me that class sizes are unacceptably large.
As we make the difficult decisions to cut the budget, our investments in public education should be the very last to put on the chopping block. When the state faced a budget deficit in 2003, the Governor and Legislature opted to suspend the voter initiatives that provide pay raises for school teachers and money to reduce class sizes. I will not support doing that again to address the latest shortfall.
I hope my colleagues in the Legislature share my belief that early learning, K through 12 and higher education funding should be pretty much sacrosanct and protected from budget cuts.
Property Tax Relief
Property taxes in our area have become unbearable for many homeowners on fixed incomes. Every day I meet one or two couples who have to move out their long-time neighborhood because of the crush of property taxes. That is unfair. I support a circuit-breaker mechanism to relieve homeowners from paying such a huge percentage of their income in property taxes. Homeowners with limited incomes should never be in a position of having to move out of their homes because of high property taxes.
Comprehensive Tax Reform
In times of prosperity it was easy to forget that Washington’s current state and local tax system is very unstable and very unfair.
Small businesses, the backbone of the local economy, are overburdened while some of the largest companies benefit from questionable tax loopholes.
Property owners suffer from rising taxes and are sometimes forced out of their neighborhoods.
Local governments are forced to react to our unpredictable revenue system by putting ad hoc tax levees on the ballot.
We feel now for the second time this decade the crush of a budget deficit. Our state budget is too dependent on retail sales and housing growth so we’re vulnerable to the boom-and-bust cycles of the economy. Depending on consumption taxes will keep us on this roller coaster.
We cannot wait any longer. We must devise a revenue system that is less regressive and less unstable. I am intrigued by the bipartisan proposal from a legislative workgroup on this matter, which looks like a more fair and stable plan to provide sustainable revenue without increasing the burden on taxpayers.
The challenge is more political than it is practical. It’s time for legislative leadership on tax reform, to convene all the stakeholders – the taxpayers, the education community, small business, corporations and trade unions – and to hammer out consensus. In the process we can also restore some trust in government as the agent of positive change.