Legislators Seeking to Permanently Ban Idea of WA State Income Tax

Fearing the State Supreme Court and other political groups might try to enact one, state House and Senate GOP members hope to ask Washington citizens to do something dramatic to permanently ban the idea of a state income tax.

Ellensburg GOP Rep Matt Manweller and 37 other House Republicans are pushing what's called House Joint Resolution 4207. It would ask voters, in November, to pass the resolution which would amend the state Constitution, making a state income tax unconstitutional.

Manweller says Gov. Inslee and State Democrats keep hinting and floating the idea, and the State Supreme Court has said, although it might be unconstitutional already they could be in favor of it. But apparently the language is too ambiguous.

HJR 4207 would clearly and concisely amend the Constitution to eliminate any chance that any legislative entity, House, Senate or Governor, could try to implement one.

Manweller included this week in a release a copy of a Democratic idea for a 7.9 percent capital gains tax. He says numerous times Washington voters have shot down such ideas, and the GOP has been able to kill several such bills in the legislature, by keeping them from passing. This proposal was created by the state Office of Financial Management, apparently at the request of Gov. Inslee and state Democrats.

He says amending the Constitution is the one sure way to prevent it from happening in the future.