Tax burden falling, state says

Associated Press

OLYMPIA — The state and local tax burden on Washingtonians has decreased to its lowest level since the mid-1980s, the state Department of Revenue reported Wednesday.

The announcement prompted Mukilteo tax rebel Tim Eyman to denounce the report as a transparent attempt to defeat Initiative 747.

Using figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, the department calculated the tax burden at $111.25 per $1,000 of income for 1999, 20th in the nation. That’s compared with $115 in 1998, when the state ranked 17th, and $117.49 in 1997, when Washington was 11th in the country. The 1999 figures are the most recent available.

The figure includes sales taxes, property taxes, the business and occupation tax and miscellaneous taxes such as excise taxes on tobacco and alcohol. It also includes the car-tab tax, which has since been repealed.

The booming economy of the late 1990s, combined with tax cuts from prior years, explain the drop, said Mike Gowrylow, a department spokesman.

"The economy, at least through 1999, was pretty darn high," Gowrylow said. "As incomes rise … taxes per thousand are going to drop."

Eyman, who likes to cite a different calculation that rates Washington as the fifth most-taxed state, questioned the report’s release just a couple of weeks before the election on his initiative to limit the growth of property tax levies to 1 percent a year.

"The timing of this thing just screams political campaign document," Eyman said.

Gowrylow said the department put out the report as a matter of course after it received the data. It published two similar reports this year, on tax burdens in 1997 and 1998. Those figures were delayed because the Census Bureau was busy with the results of the 2000 Census, Gowrylow said.

Eyman’s tax information source of choice, the Tax Foundation in Washington, D.C., appears to agree with the state Department of Revenue. The foundation ranks Washington state 17th for state and local tax burden as a percentage of income.

In the category Eyman prefers — total tax burden, including federal taxes, as a percentage of income — Washington ranks sixth.

"When it comes to the family budget, there is no distinction, it’s how much tax burden can you withstand," Eyman said.

However, that ranking reflects the state’s affluence, not its taxes, according to the foundation.

Because Washingtonians were relatively wealthy compared with the rest of the country in 1999, they paid higher taxes under the federal tax code, which falls heavily on the affluent.

The No. 5 ranking Eyman cites refers to the foundation’s "Tax Freedom Day," the average number of days a citizen must work to earn enough to pay all of his or her taxes. The foundation figures Washingtonians had to work until May 10 this year.

Copyright ©2001 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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