Washington needs an income tax

Once again Tim Eyman has sent our state into a head-spinning quandary. While philosophically I am 180 degrees opposed to Eyman, he must be credited with forcing some issues that the legislature is too (scared, lazy, unresponsive, uncaring or ignorant) to deal with. For those of you that don’t get it, the real issue is that we have a regressive (i.e. unfair and undependable) tax structure in this state.

So now I’m going to say it and all the conservatives and anti-government types can start screaming at this point.

We need an income tax!

State income taxes are deductible on our federal income tax returns, which means that those of us too ignorant to utilize this loophole (i.e., Washington state residents) effectively pay more federal income tax than those states that are smart enough to efficiently structure the way they raise money to run their government. Income taxes are more predictable than a sales tax. Income taxes are progressive; they make those that make the most money pay the most money in taxes. There is a reason that there are only a very few states in this nation without an income tax. Maybe its time that Washington state got its head out of the sand and investigated revamping its tax structure!

Everett