Bill to give families break on sales tax dies in House
A bill that would have given families a sales tax break
during late summer back-to-school sales died in the Legislature
on Monday when Rep. Ross Hunter, D-Medina, chairman of the
House Finance Committee, declined to bring it up for a vote.
Monday was the deadline for money measures to be voted
upon by fiscal committees of the House and Senate.
Rep. Jim Moeller, D-Vancouver, the bill's sponsor, said
he would try again next year to win passage of what he called
"this people's tax break for average Washington families
and average Washington businesses."
"Sometimes the legislative process doesn't work as
fast as we'd like it to work," Moeller said. "This
is one of those times."
The main roadblock, he said, was the cost: an estimated
$14 million in the 2007-09 biennium, increasing to $19 million
per biennium six years from now.
That's "a chunk of change," Moeller said. "But
$14 million isn't that much in the realm of tax breaks.
I think I need to start educating other members of my caucus
about how this would help families."
The bill was designed to benefit consumers and businesses
in Clark County and other communities bordering Oregon,
a state that has no sales tax. It would have waived the
state's sales-and-use tax on the second weekend in August
to encourage families to buy school supplies, clothes and
computers at Washington stores.
Moeller said businesses in Clark County lose millions of
dollars a year in revenue to their Oregon competitors.
He noted that Washington has about 500 tax breaks and tax
exemptions on its books to support jobs and encourage economic
development.
"We have tax breaks and credits for biotechnology
and medical-device manufacturing, third-party help-desk
services in rural counties, preproduction-development expenditures,
commercial-airline repair stations -- you name it,"
he said. Those tax breaks deprive the state of an estimated
$5 billion in revenue annually, he said.
"All I'm saying is, let's be fair about our tax policies.
Let's make them do as much good in the living rooms of Washington
families as they do in the board rooms of Washington businesses."
