OLYMPIA — A coalition of groups pushing for a sales-tax increase to pay for health-care programs showed signs of getting back on a campaign track Saturday, after appearing to falter earlier.
House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, met with representatives from the Washington State Hospital Association and Service Employees International Union on Saturday afternoon.
“We have a group of organizations that are very concerned about these budget cuts and I think they’ll be there to respond” to a proposal for a public referendum on a sales-tax increase, he said.
“I strongly support this referendum,” Chopp said. “I think it’s the right thing to do.”
Cassie Sauer, a spokeswoman for the hospital association, said the group had already reconsidered its initial decision to drop out before the meeting with Chopp.
“There’s no way these cuts are going away without revenue,” she said. “We’re feeling like we have a moral obligation to take some time with it, really think about it seriously before deciding which way to go.”
There’s just over a week left in the legislative session, which has been dominated by efforts to bridge a $9 billion state budget shortfall through mid-2011.
State lawmakers are proposing about $4 billion in spending cuts to help make up the gap, with cuts to most areas of state government. But Washington hospitals and community clinics, along with nurses and health services labor unions, were hoping to soften the blow of budget cuts by asking voters for a temporary sales-tax boost.
Last week the group sponsored a TV advertisement to pump up public support for a November referendum that would bankroll health programs. But recent polling numbers weren’t heartening.
Polling showed voters split on the idea of a temporary sales-tax increase, with a large number of people undecided, Sauer said.
While polling found the public thought the proposed budget cuts were “absolutely abhorrent,” many weren’t willing to foot the taxes to prevent them, she said.
But Sauer noted that they started the polling on April 15 — tax day — which was the same day anti-tax rallies were taking place at the Capitol and around the state.
“It couldn’t have been a worse time,” she said.
The House formally unveiled plans Friday to ask voters to raise the sales tax by three-tenths of a percentage point this November to help offset some of the cuts.
It would dedicate about $381 million for health-care spending in the next two-year budget. Another $105 million would be set aside for a “working families” tax rebate, which would help poorer Washingtonians offset the effect of a higher sales tax on their personal budgets.
The 0.3 percentage point increase would bump up the state portion of the sales tax to 6.8 percent. Local taxes are added on top of that rate; the most expensive general sales tax in the state is in King County, currently at 9.5 percent.
Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown said Saturday that her caucus hadn’t come to a final decision on whether to support the measure.
“We have to sit down and talk with the House,” she said. “Nobody knows how it’s going to turn out.”
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