Top Washington state legislator: Higher taxes are on table

OLYMPIA — Higher taxes should be part of the Legislature's solution to the state's $8 billion budget deficit, but officials must ensure the burden doesn't fall too heavily on the poor, a top state lawmaker said Thursday.

Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, said the Legislature can't rely on spending cuts alone to close a massive budget shortfall: That would only worsen the state's economic woes by leading to more layoffs.

"So we're going to look for ways that we can raise the necessary revenue to keep basic state services, in education and higher education, and health care and critical human services," Brown said in a speech to the Washington State Labor Council.

Brown didn't offer details about the type of taxes lawmakers might consider. But her comments were perhaps the most explicit public statement yet by a leading lawmaker about the notion that higher taxes will be part of the budget solution.

Gov. Chris Gregoire, also a Democrat, has proposed a no-new-taxes budget that would cut more than $3 billion from state spending. State finances have plummeted since Gregoire released her plan in December, making the Legislature's budget-writing job even more difficult.

House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle, demurred when asked about Brown's comments on taxes.

On Thursday, Brown indicated she might not favor general sales-tax increases, saying that any tax package must not "place that burden on people who are already paying too much in our unfair tax system." Democrats generally believe the sales tax places too heavy a burden on poorer people because a relatively large slice of their income is spent on consumer goods.

Voter-approved limits on the Legislature's taxing powers make it virtually impossible for Democrats to pass any tax hike with their present majorities in the House and Senate. That means any tax package would have to go to the voters for final approval, bypassing Gregoire's signature.

Brown told the Labor Council, Washington's largest union advocacy group, that its members will have to help lawmakers sell a tax package to the public — a game plan that has become widely accepted in Olympia.

"We're going to need your help to put this thing forward in a productive and fair way," she said.

Republican lawmakers were not surprised by Brown's stronger flirtation with tax increases: "I prophesied this back in November," noted Sen. Joe Zarelli, R-Ridgefield.

But GOP budget leaders said they were still disappointed that a top Democrat was moving so definitively toward more taxes as a solution, rather than even more focus on government cutbacks and efficiency.

Rep. Gary Alexander, R-Olympia, also predicted that Democrats and interest groups will have a hard time selling voters on a tax package in a deep recession.

"Citizens are out there trying to balance their own budgets," Alexander said. "They're trying to hunker down and stay within their own resources. Why shouldn't government do the same?"