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House Republican leader
calls governor's tax increase
'old school' thinking
State House Republican
Leader Richard DeBolt said Gov. Gary Locke’s call for a $2 billion tax
increase is a classic Democrat approach to the challenges of education,
and ignores the underlying economic conditions that hold the key to
meeting the state’s budget needs.
“Raising taxes to create
yet another dedicated account is not a creative solution – it is
old-school thinking,” said DeBolt, R-Chehalis. “The long-term solution
for funding schools and other important services is to foster a healthy
economy where families have jobs and communities are prosperous.”
Raising taxes will weigh on our struggling economy at a time when we
need to stimulate growth and puts an unfair burden on families who are
having a hard time finding work.”
The governor’s proposal calls for a 1-cent increase in the state sales
tax, bringing the total state and local sales tax rate close to 10
percent in many parts of the state. Proponents acknowledge the plan
would cost a taxpayer with an annual income of $30,000 an additional
$150 a year in taxes. When fully implemented, taxpayers would be paying
an additional $2 billion per biennium.
“This will secure Governor Locke’s legacy as the most aggressive
tax-raiser in state history. He left the Legislature after raising taxes
by $900 million in 1993 and now he leaves the governor’s office
championing another $2 billion in tax increases,” DeBolt said.
“The governor and the Legislature agreed just nine months ago that we
should balance the budget without raising taxes, and we did it with a
bipartisan effort. Tax increases were a bad idea nine months ago and
they’re a bad idea now.”
DeBolt noted that the governor’s education “trust fund,” is really just
a tax increase with revenue dedicated to a specific purpose.
“The idea of a ‘trust fund’ implies that the revenues needed are finite
and that once the fund is whole we will live off the earnings,” said
DeBolt. “In reality it’s just a permanent sales tax increase. The
governor will be gone in nine months but if this is enacted, his tax
increase will be here to stay.”
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For more information, contact:
John Rothlin, Staff
Director - (360) 786-7254
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