The “streamline” sales tax idea floating around Olympia these days is just another Band-Aid that should fall off the skinned knee of this state’s tax system.
That the current system has problems, rough edges that need smoothing, is a given.
Before Tim Eyman and his Initiative 695, the sanding was done with the motor vehicle excise tax. Eyman argued and voters agreed that using funds from vehicle-licensing fees to help even out inequities in sales tax revenue was not very … intuitive.
I-695 took away the solution but it didn’t fix the problem.
The streamline sales tax plan is another attempt to find a solution by covering it up with a bandage that doesn’t really fit the injury.
In this case, the sales tax a person pays on delivered items would follow the person home, not stay where it was spent.
The problem is that communities take different approaches to business.
Some communities spend much time, energy and money creating a business-friendly environment by putting in infrastructure, giving tax breaks or incentives, simplfying permit processes and other items.
Others eschew such commercialism, creating enclaves of residential serenity next to bustling, vibrant – and needed – business centers.
Robin Hood would immediately recognize the streamline sales tax idea as a 21st Century version of his motto, “Rob from the rich and give to the poor.”
If lawmakers, and voters, really want to find a more equitable and less regressive way to address tax inequities, they’ll have to be willing to say the “I” word.
No, not “initiative.” It’s “income tax.”
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