An email received from Washington State Senate Republican Leader Mike Hewitt:

Senate passes largest operating budget tax increase in state history

Today the state Senate passed two bills that will raise taxes nearly $3 billion over three years – the largest operating budget tax increase in state history. The two measures include:

– an increase in the state sales tax of .3 percent between June 1, 2010 and June 30 2013, expected to raise taxes by about $1 billion over three years;
– higher business and occupation taxes on employers;
– an extra $1 a pack tax on cigarettes; and
– a tax on bottled water estimated to raise $30 million between now and mid-2011.

Substitute Senate Bill 6143 would raise or reinstate 21 taxes at a cost to taxpayers of about $830 million between now and July 2011, including a sales tax increase slated to raise $313 million in the next 16 months (almost $1 billion over the next three years) and a $184 million business and occupation tax increase on service-related employers.

Senate Bill 6874 would increase the state tax on cigarettes by a dollar per pack, to $3.02 in tax alone. In 2002, state government sold off $1.5 billion in tobacco securitization funds to get $451 million in cash.

Sen. Mike Hewitt, Senate Republican Leader, voted “no” on both measures.

“These bills would tax people to the bone to support a spending plan that plays all kinds of shell games with the budget,” said Hewitt, R-Walla Walla. “They’re transferring money around from account to account, counting on federal money that may or may not arrive, and making it almost impossible to track where the money is coming from or going.

“These new taxes are also being rammed through at a record pace,” Hewitt continued. “We saw the ’21 taxes’ bill for the first time Friday night, and they’re rushing it to a vote over the weekend. That isn’t open government.”

“This spending plan will cost a family of four more than a thousand dollars over the next three years,” Hewitt said. “I’m sure not many of those families want to bail out the state’s over-spending with another thousand dollars in taxes.

“The majority party talks a lot about ‘Washington values.’ It is not Washington values to raise taxes on people who are unemployed to give pay raises to those who already have jobs. It isn’t Washington values to take health care away from people and give increased benefits to those who already have it. A better approach would be to look at every state expenditure line-by-line and prioritize state spending, bringing it back in line with the amount of revenue coming in the door. That’s the way to avoid historically large tax increases like what the Senate approved today.”

Senator Don Benton was unsuccessful in making a “procedural motion during final debate on Senate Bill 6143 today to require separate votes on each of the 21 tax increases in the omnibus tax bill.”

Benton added, “And now, in the middle of a devastating recession, the Democrats have added new spending of about 400 million dollars in their budget for the remainder of this biennium. We are in the middle of an economic crisis and they add new spending? They could have cut their tax package nearly in-half if it wasn’t for this.

“Not only is this Legislature about to impose the largest operating budget tax increase in the history of our state, it is the largest job-killing bill in the history of our state.”

Washington voters, how many more reasons do you need to vote Republican in November?