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Feb. 20, 2009
Dear friends and neighbors,
Yesterday the preliminary revenue
forecast was released and the news is not good. The
latest forecast shows that Washington now has reached a
record state budget deficit of $8.3 billion.
Even before yesterday's announcement,
Democrats in both the House and the Senate began talking
about tax increases.
Here's what Senate Majority Leader Lisa
Brown, D-Spokane, told Seattle's KING 5 News:
"If we decide an 'all-cuts' budget is
not something we can accept because of the impacts on
the social safety net and how much backwards we'd have
to go in education and higher education, then we will
consider revenue options at that point," said Brown.
In case you didn't know, "revenue
options" are actually tax increases.
Let's be straight here. Families are
struggling, businesses are closing and people are losing
their jobs. More than
252,000 Washingtonians are out of work. Just last month,
more than 75,300 people filed for unemployment. Taking
more money away from families would be devastating for
people already fighting to pay their food, energy and
housing costs. Taxpayers and employers did not create
this crisis and you should not be expected to bail
out state government!
| Some Democrats in the Senate
believe the solution to our problems is a
state income tax. I strongly oppose a
Washington state income tax for several reasons. First, proponents claim an
income tax would prevent future budget problems by providing a more
stable revenue source.
Let's read between the
lines. What they're really saying is that the goal of an income tax is
to increase our taxes. Washington's citizens are overtaxed already.
Increasing our tax burden would harm struggling families and cause
further damage to our ailing economy. |
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"I strongly
oppose a Washington state income tax"
Rep.
Mike Armstrong |
Advocates of a state
income tax fail to acknowledge that Washington does not have a revenue
problem. It has a spending problem. That's the mistake that got us into
this mess in the first place. Although incoming revenue has
continued to steadily rise since Gov. Gregoire has been in office, the
Legislature has repeatedly spent far more than the state was taking in.
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Washington is one of seven
states that does not tax citizens' incomes. The Washington Policy Center
reports that in most of the nine states that have adopted income
taxes, the rate of government spending subsequently increased,
while personal income growth was reduced in six of those states.
If an income tax is
supposedly the solution to budget deficits, why then do states that tax
income, such as California, have some of the largest budget deficits in
the nation?
Second, there is little
reason to have confidence in claims that an income tax would replace
existing taxes. Remember, in Olympia, tax reform is double speak for tax
increases. Until government spending habits are changed to stop
expansion of the state budget, how could we trust that income tax
advocates would use tax reform for any other purpose than
increasing the amount of money available for even more state spending?
Washington voters have
rejected the income tax six times from 1934 to 1973 -- the last time by
a margin of three to one.
A state income tax will
not solve Washington's budget problems. Getting a handle on our spending
will. As one citizen told a Seattle television news reporter, "How about
let's do something different that's never been tried in government
before? RESPONSIBLE SPENDING!"
I welcome your comments.
Sincerely,
Mike Armstrong
State Representative
12th Legislative District |
