Republican Mike Hope won the recent 44th District recount with 50.05 percent of the vote.
That’s well within any statistical margin of error. If Hope had 134 fewer votes or Democrat Liz Loomis 134 more, the election would have been a tie.
Then what?
The law in this and many other states calls for a “lot draw,” usually a coin flip.
It could happen with the tight U.S. Senate race in Minnesota.
Wouldn’t a re-vote be a better way to settle a tie?
A first step toward state tax reform
An editorial here last week said that Washington should create a fair tax system by allowing an income tax and putting a limit on the sales tax.
That’s right, but this period of economic hardship is the wrong time to make such a move.
Washington voters for decades have seen income-tax proposals as attempts to take more of their money.
Now, they would see an income-tax proposal as a way to balance the budget.
So let’s take a smaller step toward tax fairness. That is by replacing the business and occupations tax on gross receipts with a tax on net profits. The current system taxes businesses even if they lose money. This is especially hard on new businesses, which may not make a profit for several years.
Just make the change revenue neutral.
Washington’s irrational fear of an income tax
Voters have been afraid of the income tax for decades even when they know it could reduce our burdensome sales and property taxes.
Two of the state’s most popular modern governors — Republican Dan Evans (1965-77) and Democrat Booth Gardner (1985-93) — tried to change the tax system, as have countless legislators.
The people liked both governors but not their tax proposals. Evans, for example, unsuccessfully campaigned for tax reform a few years before he won a third term.
I know legislators who have spoken in favor of the tax. They don’t lack political courage as much as they know that voters would shoot down any effort to change the tax system.
A state income tax is toxic in Washington, as a sales tax is in Oregon, which has voted down sales-tax proposals for as long as Washington has been saying no to income-tax proposals.
Either state can write any revenue-neutral proposal, but voters will see it as a money grab rather than a redistribution of the tax burden.
That’s especially true when voters know that state government is facing a shortfall.
Any proposed change in the system now would look like a way to close the budget gap. That’s not the reason we should make a change. We should change to put the burden on those most able to pay.
This state and most others are in financial trouble no matter what combination of income taxes, property taxes and sales taxes they use.
Evan Smith is the Enterprise Forum editor. Send comments to entopinion@heraldnet.com.
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