An initiative just filed for the reduction of property taxes would cut the portion of taxpayer funds going to the state by 60% over three years. I-1786 is intended to give struggling Washington taxpayers some relief after the damage wrought by Governor Inslee's coronavirus response. Many have felt the pinch of greatly increased property taxes coming during 2020, while struggling with reduced income stemming from the Governor's restrictive business policies. Unfortunately, the Governor and the Democrat majority in the Legislature have proposed many new tax increases for 2021.
The Democrats in the majority have increased spending by $4.5 billion dollars just last year. The new Inslee budget proposal of 57.6 billion dollars increases the last 2019-2020 budget still further by another $1.3 billion. To put things in perspective, the state budget was $31.1 billion dollars in 2010, just before Inslee took office. Inslee and Democrats have almost doubled the state’s spending in the last 10 years, and they want to continue at that enormous growth rate, far above the population and economic growth rates.
This evergrowing increased taxes approach, with the spending to match, is favored by career politicians and bureaucrats in the state who have been collecting a salary funded by taxpayer dollars all year long and didn’t take a pay cut like many small business owners and their employees did after getting hit with the effects of Inslee's "non-essential" and restrictive business policies.
If passed, I-1786 would take effect for 2022, and continue for tax years 2023 and 2024, and reverting back to the usual tax rate for 2025.
There are many other painful taxes to reduce as well. When the new Legislative session began on Monday, Republicans are pushing for part of the state's "rainy day fund" to be used to help offset exploding unemployment insurance rates, due to Inslee's forced business shutdowns and restrictions during 2020. Many business owners don't think it's fair for them to be charged huge tax increases to pay for the losses that the UI fund sustained due to the Governor's heavy-handed coronavirus policies and the incompetence of his appointed Employment Security Department, Suzi LeVine, in losing hundreds of millions of dollars to foreign criminal gangs in fraudulent payments. If there is no relief for the UI tax increases, which for some businesses are as high as 3000-4500 percent, the employment rate is sure to take a beating.