This afternoon, a whole bunch of Democrats in the Washington State Senate are going to introduce measures to try to take back some of the $6.5 billion that the state gives away annually via tax loopholes for big banks, giant corporations, private jet enthusiasts, plastic surgeons, and the like.

Doesn’t mean these legislators will be able to get their measures passed—thanks to Tim Eyman, doing so would require a 2/3 majority, which they probably can’t get in the senate. Still, its nice to see them trying to raise revenue, given our $5.1 billion budget shortfall and the dire consequences of dealing with it only by cutting, cutting, cutting away at essential services.

Eli Sanders was The Stranger's associate editor. His book, "While the City Slept," was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. He once did this and once won...

8 replies on “About Time”

  1. —thanks to Tim Eyman, doing so would require a 2/3 majority…

    Don’t you mean ‘thanks to the idiots that voted ‘yes’ on Tim Eyman’s destructive and unbelievably bad initiative’?

  2. As a member of the “Our Economic Future” coalition, WashPIRG doesn’t accept your assumption that closing tax loopholes would require a 2/3 majority. Until there is a ruling by some competent authority there is simply no basis to assume that closing a tax loophole is equal to raising taxes. For the media to repeatedly echo this as a given fact only discourages legislators from even addressing the issue.

    If the state actually gave out coupons for Viagra equal to the amount of sales tax that isn’t being charged when it’s purchased, it would be called wasteful spending.

    If the state wrote a check for $180,000 each year and gave it to poultry farmers to buy bedding for chickens, even the most conservative Republicans would be outraged; but for some insane reason, they turn a blind eye to this spending when it’s done as a “tax exemption.”

    These and hundreds of other tax loopholes and subsidies have escaped scrutiny, meaning a loss of revenue that should be available to balance the budget without cuts that are devastating thousands of Washington families, worsening existing economic inequalities, and harming our economic recovery.

    While there are some exemptions that are necessary to attract or maintain economic activity, there are also many that are simply giveaways that have do not serve the general public interest and should be recognized for what they are – wasteful spending.

    It’s time to eliminate tax exemptions that were intended to help emerging businesses that have now matured and no longer need them. There’s no reason to maintain giveaways like B&O subsidies that were put in place to stimulate economic activity or create jobs that have failed to materialize.

    Steve Breaux
    Washington Public Interest Research Group

  3. Lecture away, Washpirg; it doesn’t change the reality that it WILL take a 2/3rds vote. This is not the first bill to be dropped re tax exemptions but none of them have gone anywhere because House and Senate leaders and budget writers have not paid any heed or made any effort to try to raise a 2/3rds vote. Lecture them, not us.

  4. @1 True! Eyman didn’t force thousands upon thousands of complete fucking idiots to vote for 1053. Let them own their ignorance and short-sightedness.

  5. Is closing a tax loophole the same as raising taxes? If not, then do they still need the 2/3 majority, and why? If it is the same as raising taxes, WTF? And Fuck Tim Eyeman!

  7. “What’s in a name? that which we call a tax exemption
    By any other name would cost as much;
    So a tax loophole would, were he not tax loophole call’d,
    Retain that dear imperfection which it owes…”

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