Washington
The Seattle Times: Lawmakers at packed hearing told to pass transportation plan
October 15, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
By Mike Lindblom Seattle Times transportation reporter A spectrum of transit riders, construction workers, business owners, pedestrians, bicyclists, freight carriers and government officials on Monday night urged state lawmakers to pass a multibillion-dollar transportation package. The hearing, at First Presbyterian Church in downtown Seattle, drew 450 people, including yellow-shirted transit activists and orange-shirted construction […]
Real Change: Study finds Washington’s tax system is the nation’s most regressive
October 3, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(Original Post) October 2, 2013 Vol: 20 No: 40 by: Aaron Burkhalter , Staff Reporter Washington’s poorest people pay the highest taxes in the entire country. According to a study by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, Washington state’s least affluent residents pay 16.9 percent of their income in state and local […]
The Fiscal Times: You Won’t Believe Which State Taxes Its Poor the Most
September 24, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(Original Post) BETH BRAVERMAN The Fiscal Times September 23, 2013 Washington State may have one of the lowest overall tax burdens in the country, but its poorest citizens pay more than residents of any other state. The poorest 20 percent of Washington residents pay 16.9 percent of their income in taxes, while the top 1 […]
Washington Post: The state that taxes the poor the most is… a blue one
September 23, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(Original Post) By Niraj Chokshi, Published: September 21 at 10:00 am The state that easily handed President Obama a victory last November while passing voter-approved referendums legalizing same-sex marriage and marijuana consumption also happens to have the nation’s highest tax burden on the poor. Poor families in Washington state pay 16.9 percent of their total […]
Washington is a “Low Tax State” Overall, But Not for Families Living in Poverty
September 19, 2013 • By Meg Wiehe
Read the Report in PDF Form See all “Low Tax for Who?” states New data from the Census Bureau appear to lend support to Washington’s reputation as a “low tax state,” ranking it 36th nationally in taxes collected as a share of personal income.1 But focusing on the state’s overall tax revenues has led many […]
Yakima Herald Republic: Advocates press economic argument for immigration reform
August 16, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
Echoing a host of recent reports, a coalition of grower and labor interests presented a new study Tuesday that concludes comprehensive immigration reform would create jobs and pump billions of dollars into the state and national economies.
Ballard News-Tribune: Tarleton addresses transportation, environment, revenue
August 14, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
"It is absolutelly regressive, in every which way, with any economist," she said of Washington's tax system. At the beginning of this year, The Washington D.C.-based Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) released a report crowning Washington state with the most regressive tax system.
Yakima Herald Republic: Undocumented immigrants paid $292M in state, local taxes in 2010
July 11, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
By Mike Faulk Yakima Herald-Republic YAKIMA, Wash. — Undocumented immigrants paid $292 million in state and local taxes in Washington in 2010, according to a new study. Released this week by the Washington, D.C., nonprofit Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the study ranks the state 10th in the nation for most taxes paid […]
The Stranger: We’re Number One at Taxing the Poor
February 7, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(Original Post) Study Finds Washington State Maintains Nation’s Most Regressive Tax System by Goldy Washington State may be progressive when it comes to gay marriage, pot, and electing Democratic governors, but when it comes to our tax system, not so much. According to a new report from a DC-based think tank, Washington continues to boast […]
Business Insider: There’s A Reason Bill Gates And Jeff Bezos Both Call Washington State Home
January 31, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(Original Post) Megan Durisin | Jan. 31, 2013, 3:43 PM Why does the wealthiest man in America live in Washington? The answer is in a report released this week by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy. Washington’s tax system is the most disjointed in the nation, leaving rich residents — including Bill Gates, the […]
Economic Opportunity Institute: Fairer Taxes for Washington: Taxing High Incomes to Reduce Regressive Taxes and Improve Public Services
January 15, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
Washington State’s seventy year-old tax structure is built on an ever-shrinking base, and taxes fall most heavily on those least able to afford them. This discussion brief outlines options for a limited tax on the highest income households, coupled with a reduction in sales or property tax. The result would be a fairer tax system […]
Washington State Budget and Policy Center: The Working Families Tax Rebate
January 14, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
Washington State is in a deep economic recession. Working families are struggling to make ends meet as more and more people lose their jobs, their homes, and their health insurance. Businesses are struggling to survive as consumer spending plummets. An unprecedented state budget deficit threatens to make the situation worse. Legislators have responded to the […]
Economic Opportunity Institute: An Income Tax for Washington: Questions and Answers
January 14, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
Washington State has been losing ground on education for 15 years, slipping towards the bottom of national rankings in class size and school funding. Our children, workers, and businesses deserve better. The recession highlights how difficult it is to raise additional revenues to maintain and improve public services, given Washington’s outmoded and regressive tax structure. […]
Washington State Budget and Policy Center: Balancing Adequacy and Equity in Washington State’s Property Tax
January 14, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
Public education, fire protection, emergency medical services, parks, criminal justice, hospitals: all highpriority public services that are funded by the property tax. Washington can ensure adequate funding for these programs the public demands and address the inequities in the system. Read the Original Full Report
Washington State Budget and Policy Center: Increasing the Sales Tax and Funding the Working Families Tax Rebate
January 14, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
In our new Policy Brief, the Budget & Policy Center recommends temporarily increasing the sales tax and fully funding the Working Families Tax Rebate. If enacted, this proposal would help maintain our shared investments in education, health care, the environment, and safer communities, while reducing costs for low-income working families. Read the Full Report (PDF)
Washington State Budget & Policy Center: A Capital Reform
January 14, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
To create jobs, spur long-term economic growth, and foster prosperity, Washington state desperately needs to rebuild its eroding education, public health, and community safety infrastructure. Our state has a powerful, but untapped resource to accomplish this: capital gains. A modest tax on some capital gains would help fuel economic recovery and opportunity for future generations […]
Lewiston Morning Tribune: Slapped Down
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) LEWISTON MORNING TRIBUNE, IDAHO | Fri, Mar 12, 11:16 AM Mar. 12–CHEERS … to Washington Gov. Chris Gregoire. When Idaho Gov. C.L. (Butch) Otter ridiculed the Evergreen State’s refusal to gut every last program in the name of avoiding any and all tax increases, Gregoire slapped him down. With good cause. […]
Olympia Newswire: Tax Relief Without Budget Cuts?- New Report Details How WA Taxpayers Could Save Hundreds of Millions
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) By Trevor Griffey • on April 15, 2010 Washington state taxpayers are paying hundreds of millions more in taxes than they need to, according to a new study from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy and United for a Fair Economy. The report, “Leaving Money on the Table,” which was […]
The Seattle Times: Initiative 1077 would make state taxes fairer and create opportunity
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) By Bill Gates SrSpecial to The Times THIS year, a typical middle-class family in our state will pay more than 11 percent of its hard-earned income in state and local taxes. Poor families will pay at an even higher rate. Hundreds of thousands of small businesses, already struggling in the current […]
The Seattle Examiner: A fix to Washington’s broken revenue system
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) May 24, 7:42 PM · Russ Lehman – Seattle Public Policy Examiner Examiner 5/24/10 There’s a proposed state initiative out getting signatures right now striving to qualify for the fall ballot. The measure, I-1098, is intended to, as the sponsors say, “make our tax code more fair”. Bill Gates, Sr., the […]
The News Tribune: Ballot measure gives us chance to fix budget for good
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) KATIE BAIRD Last updated: August 15th, 2010 12:02 PM (PDT) Should we be upset that Congress has just promised Washington an extra $526 million? Not I nor, I think, will others whose kids go to our public schools, who use Medicaid for health insurance or have a parent in a nursing […]
The Olympian: Piecemeal tax approach doesn’t go far enough to fix system
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) THE OLYMPIAN Ten years ago Bill Gates Sr., father of Microsoft founder Bill Gates, Jr., headed an independent commission that recommended an income tax for Washington state. That study has rested on some shelf gathering dust for the last decade. Lawmakers have ignored it in the belief that an income tax […]
McClatchy Washington Bureau: One rich guy who wants to pay higher taxes: Bill Gates Sr.
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) Brad Shannon | Tacoma News Tribune last updated: January 18, 2011 07:24:02 PM Bill Gates Sr., the retired lawyer and wealthy father of the Microsoft co-founder, thinks Washington state’s tax system is out of whack and needs repair. The poor pay too much tax, the rich pay too little, Gates says. […]
KEPR TV: WA Pays Highest Cell Phone Tax in Nation
January 8, 2013 • By ITEP Staff
(PDF of Original Post) By Chelsea Kopta Story Published: Jan 25, 2011 at 5:46 PM PST PASCO, Wash. — Perhaps nothing is certain in Washington State but taxes and complaining about taxes. Now there’s a new hike to gripe about: your cell phone. Cell phones are the tax man’s latest target. And if you didn’t […]
Seattle Post Intelligencer: Report claims Boeing paid no taxes over past three years
December 21, 2012 • By ITEP Staff
(Original Post) By AUBREY COHEN, SEATTLEPI.COM STAFFPublished 09:53 p.m., Thursday, November 3, 2011 Boeing has paid less than nothing in taxes on its billions of dollars in profits over the past three years, according to a new report. But Boeing disputes the accounting, saying it paid hundreds of millions in taxes from 2008 through 2010. […]
