Last year, the legislature rushed forward like a plane with its throttle wide open to approve a tax incentive package for Boeing. The cost to taxpayers: $8.7 billion through 2040. With the next legislative session beginning in January, the question now is: At what speed will lawmakers address the systemic lack of transparency and accountability in Washington's tax incentive programs?
There are more than 600 different tax breaks in Washington that reduce or eliminate taxes on sales, property, and gross receipts for several thousand companies. In 2011, the total amount this state was giving away through all its various tax loopholes was estimated at $6.5 billion a year—an amount that's almost certainly grown since. At least one of those tax breaks could be viewed as populist: the loophole that keeps you from paying any tax on food. But on whole, it's a small number of big, highly profitable corporations in aerospace and high tech that are claiming the bulk of Washington's most lucrative tax breaks…
