Washington State’s Gimmick Budget

ATR ^ | 2012-02-23 | Will Upton

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Democrats in Washington State’s House of Representatives have unveiled their budget proposal – HB 2127 – which they claim closes a $1 billion budget shortfall without raising taxes or borrowing money. In reality, the budget does raise taxes, and relies on accounting gimmicks to solve their $1 billion spending problem.

The budget proposal, along with SB 2728, would allow counties in Washington State to add a 6-perent utility tax that in many instances would wind up on taxpayers’ cell phone bills. Washington State already has the 2nd highest national tax burden on wireless, with a combined state and federal rate of 23-percent. An added 6-percent utility tax would impact the 6 million wireless subscribers in the Evergreen State – it should also be noted that over a quarter of households in Washington are wireless only.

In addition to opening the gates to burdensome county-level taxes, the Democrats’ budget defers certain payments to education until the next two-year budget cycle, kicking the can down the road and dodging the growing need to address the state’s out-of-control spending problems in an election year.

What the House Democrats have proposes is not a budget, but a rather a placebo, getting them out of having to make tough decisions in an election year and setting them up to pass what will probably be a massive tax increase in the next budget cycle.

Read more: http://www.atr.org/washington-states-gimmick-budget-a6743#ixzz1nFKPk58D

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House Democrats say their budget doesn’t “raise taxes”, but it opens the door for tax hikes.

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