WASHINGTON STATE

Washington State House Democrats

HOUSE DEMOCRATS

Reykdal joins freshman Democrats to propose ending tax breaks to fund education

For the freshman legislator from Tumwater, the choice was simple: help fund the state’s paramount duty or defend out-of-state tax breaks.

Rep. Chris Reykdal (D) chose K-3 Education, joining 48 other House Democrats, including the eleven caucus freshmen, to introduce a bill today that would end nearly $170 million worth of tax exemptions. The money would be redirected for smaller class sizes in K-3 to provide young children with more individualized attention.

House Bill 2078 would close a pair of tax loopholes – a B&O exemption for corporate banks and the sales tax exemption for out-of-state shoppers. Ending those two exemptions would generate $166.8 million for K-3 classrooms in 2011-13, an investment linked to basic education reforms that have stalled due to a $5.1 billion shortfall in the state’s budget.

I’ve made clear my priorities for Washington include a fresh look at the holes we’ve punched in our tax code, some of which serve little or no purpose or value to the citizens of Washington,” said Reykdal. “Today, we take a stand and say ‘No more’; if Education is our state’s paramount duty, then the Wall Street banks will have to prove how their tax break adds more value than the development of our children.”

Washington is the only state in the nation that offers a tax break to large banks outside its borders, yet there’s no clear indication citizens here receive any benefit from it.

“We do have a choice,” Reykdal stated. “We can cut and cut, and cut some more and never look back, or we can reassess our priorities, our values, and weigh the costs and benefits of our tax breaks.
“That’s what we did and the choice was clear; Wall Street banks are doing just fine on their own, it is the children of Washington who should benefit from state spending.”

The freshman Democrats, who have dubbed themselves the “11 in 2011,” said they were inspired by the thousands of people who have been rallying and protesting in Olympia to end certain tax breaks to help protect funding for education and human services. They said the two-thirds vote requirement to close loopholes that was enacted by voters last fall isn’t a deterrent. “If both sides of the aisle have their priorities right, the two-thirds requirement can be met. This proposal will test people’s rhetoric about their commitment to education funding.”

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