Sims pitches four-pronged revamp of tax system (WA gov candidate)

[Ediacara]

Sims pitches four-pronged revamp of tax system

By Ralph Thomas
Seattle Times staff reporter

SPOKANE — Ron Sims, a Democratic candidate for governor, wants to make Washington the only place in the nation where businesses pay nothing in state taxes.

He also wants to eliminate the state sales tax and give homeowners a big break on their property taxes.

What's the catch? Sims, the King County executive, is also calling for a personal income tax that would hit the rich harder than in any other state, with the top rate at 10 percent on incomes exceeding $100,000.

After months of behind-the-scenes number crunching and sending up occasional trial balloons, Sims yesterday unveiled his 23-page plan for overhauling the state's much-maligned tax system.

More at the Seattle Times

[montanacowboy]

1. What planet does Sims live on?

The sales taxes he wants to eliminate fund lots of city and county services - the property taxes are mainly to fund education - if this passes Washington State will have the highest income tax in the COUNTRY!!!!!!!!!!!

[Ediacara]

2. He wants to kill the state's sales tax

But local sales taxes would still remain. So in Seattle, there would still be a 2.3% sales tax for instance.

That is if I read the article correctly....

[C GIBBY]

3. TAX

SALES TAX IN SEATTLE ON AUTOS IS 9.2%. WA IS ALREADY ONE OF THE TOP 3 HIGHEST TAXED STATES.

[Ediacara]

11. But 6.5% of the 9.2% is the state sales tax that Sims wants to kill

Leaving the tax at 2.7%....

[customerserviceguy]

4. It's a bold move

but it would change Washington's tax system so that it more closely resembles Oregon's system. I'm not sure if he plans to take away sales taxing authority from cities and counties, but unless he makes the sales tax disappear, it's not terribly likely that Washington voters will support the constitutional amendment to have an income tax.

The business and occupation tax that Sims wants to replace is an insidious tax that affects all businesses, whether they are profitable or not. By getting rid of this tax on gross sales, Sims' plan hits hardest those making the most money, who benefit the most from being able to do business in Washington.

The plan would even out tax collections, right now, discretionary purchases can be withheld, making state and local coffers low in tough economic times. So much of what Washingtonians pay out, for food, personal services, and mortgage or rent payments, is not subject to sales tax anyway.

I give Ron Sims a lot of credit for coming up with a well thought out plan to try to bring some financial stability to Washington, I just hope racism (Sims is African-American) doesn't stifle his chance to win the Democratic primary in September.

[schultzee]

7. I think our highest in Louisiana is 8 to9%, we also have sales and

property tax.

[bemildred]

5. Sounds highly progressive.

Should be an interesting argument.

[maxsolomon]

6. he has a lot of cajones to even say this

this is the land of the regressive tax, and property taxes are becoming unbearable.

it may have traction. he has my vote regardless if he beats gregoire. he's not rossi.

[schultzee]

8. Property taxes prevent home ownership by making the note too high.

we used to not have them, and now that we do house notes are higher.

[sally343434]

9. It's a good idea

I agree that there should be a progressive income tax in Washington, but only if they completely eliminate all sales taxes (like it is in the adjoining state of Oregon.)

Unlike Sims, though, I think businesses should also be subject to an income tax. That would make Washington's system much more fair than it is now.

Of course, this isn't going to go anywhere. Sims odd exclusion for business is merely an attempt to buy their cooperation, since none of the largest companies in Washington pay any tax whatsoever today. Nevertheless, Washington is home to Bill Gates and many other multi-billionaires who have no interest in contributing anything to society.
So they will see to it that none of their obscenely large income gets taxed.

[Ediacara]

12. An interesting idea on sales taxes is what's set-up in Montana

State-wide there is no sales tax, except in a few tourist towns, like Big Sky, West Yellowstone etc, so Montanans generally are not paying sales taxes..

I am not sure if that could be done in Washington though because unlike Montana, the tourist draws are the population centers (next to no one lives in Big Sky or West Yellowstone).

I like Sims' idea in general, but I would have to look into it more to see....

[mondo joe]

10. Sims can afford to be interesting because he's not a contender

Ron Sims isn't likely to get anywhere so he can afford to be provocative and interesting.

I'm not planning to vote for him, but I appreciate him for pushing the boundaries.