State Legislature 2013 session

[eridani]

69. WA Senate keeps creating more tax loopholes

http://washingtonpolicywatch.org/2013/05/22/wa-senate-keeps-creating-more-tax-loopholes/

But the Senate, rather than closing tax loopholes, has created even more! Rather than write an honest budget with real money, the Senate is uses accounting gimmicks. And rather than close a loophole created by the courts that benefits only a handful of already very wealthy sons and daughters, the Senate ignored it. For Senate Leader Rodney Tom, a Democrat/Republican from Bellevue (he can’t seem to decide which he is), and his Republican allies, it was much more worthy to protect the privilege of the inheritors of wealth rather than actually pave the way for middle class kids to get a chance at higher education.

Everyone seems to be hoping the Revenue Forecast Council will pull a rabbit out of its hat in mid-June, and make writing a budget a weekend holiday. That won’t happen. We have lost too much is the past five years. We have to take conscious small steps forward. It will take time — years and decades. That is how long the state has whittled away at government funding, diminishing K-12 , higher education, basic health care. What’s important is that we choose to go forward, not endorse the current and continuing diminishment of public services, which can only undermine our quality of life and opportunity in our state. In the special session, that’s a pathway for progress. It is not earth-shaking, but it is progress. Let’s hope the Senate will join in negotiating this pathway with the House.