Personal finance social network WalletHub ranks Washington the 6th best state in which to be a taxpayer.
Apropos to yesterday’s post on the proper context in which to put proposed local tax hikes, I’d just like to mention for the umpteenth time in my decade of political blogging that, on average, Washington is not a high-tax state.
We’re just not. There’s no debating it. Even here in tax-happy Seattle.
Is our sales tax high? Absolutely. But then, we don’t have an income tax. Are our gasoline, alcohol, and tobacco taxes some of the highest in the nation? No question. But then, we don’t have an income tax. Are our property taxes abnormally high compared to other states? Um, no. Measured by either percentage of home value or percentage of household income, our property taxes are actually quite middling. And, we don’t have an income tax!
Everybody uses a different methodology, but no matter how you look at it, Washington’s state and local taxes are consistently found to be below the national average. The Washington State Department of Revenue ranked our state and local taxes as a percentage of personal income 35th nationally in 2011, the last year for which full US Census data is available. Personal finance social network WalletHub recently released a report that finds Washington to be the 6th best state in which to be a taxpayer. Even the conservative Tax Foundation—the “think” tank Tim Eyman used to love to cite—ranks Washington 6th in favorable business tax climate and only 27th in state and local tax “burden”:
Washington’s 2010 tax burden of 9.29% ranks 23rd lowest out of 50 states, and is below the national average of 9.9%.
Of course, Washington shamefully tops the nation in regressivity, thanks to our lack of an income tax and our subsequent over-reliance on high sales and excise taxes. If you earn over a million dollars a year you pay less than 2.8 percent in state and local taxes, but if you earn less than $20,000 a year you pay an exorbitant 16.9 percent. That is outrageously indefensible. But our mildly regressive property taxes play only a minor role in tilting our tax structure onto the shoulders of the poor, while funding much of the public services on which they rely.
Look, nobody likes to pay taxes. Not even me. But when I hear parks district and Metro funding opponents cry out that our state and local taxes are already too damn high, I tell them to go try out another state! We’ve been living on the cheap the past decade and a half, deferring maintenance on the infrastructure we have and refusing to invest in the infrastructure we need. Our tax “burden” is already on par with states like Mississippi—and if we don’t start spending a little more on roads and transit and parks and schools, our infrastructure and our economy will soon be on par with Mississippi as well.
Goldy, shall be known from now on as…Excuses McGee.
@1 I apologize that the facts don’t align with your opinions.
You know, Goldy, I don’t know what the situation was at The Stranger, but their loss, Horses’ Ass’ gain. You are a cogent and careful writer and write about consequential topics. You moving to The Stranger was the ONLY reason I started reading Slog. Now it seems mostly to consist of reviews of precious and froufrou eateries and unlistenable music.
It is horrible you don’t have steady income, but that is bound to change.
You know, WA is a great bargain if your rich. If you’re a low income earner (or living off whatever you can earn by writing on your blog) then there are a ton of better states for you to be living in.
The problem in Washington is not the absolute tax burden, but the distribution of tax burdens. If you’re low income, our taxes are too high. We’re one of the best states to live in if you’re in the top 20%, but that does you no good if you’re in the bottom 20%.
Even though Washington is a blue state, we have enough troglodytes to put tax reform out of reach, making our state the most regressive of all the states in its state and local taxing policies.
And, unfortunately, progressives here are faced with a Hobson’s choice between raising regressive taxes or giving up public services.
For years, I’ve argued that raising taxes on people who can’t afford them can be pushed only so far before it provokes an angry backlash against the very things that progressives want to support.
I say be careful and proceed with caution.
I’m with the Rabbit on this. Seattle is becoming impossible for lower income individuals. My very elderly mother used to vote yes on every levy and bond issue but now is voting no as her property taxes are now as high as many people’s mortgage or rent payments.
The recent idea of creating a parks taxing district once again presents voters with the choice of adding to property taxes or cutting park maintenance. It also would insulate parks expenditures from both voters and the city council. It’s bad enough that Woodland Park was spun off as quasi-private enterprise claiming to be exempt from public records law.
These days I can’t decide if I’m a communist or a reactionary but I don’t care to pay for another layer of administration when the park department, year after year, can’t even manage to attack the English ivy overrunning our open space.
Low taxes? Must be why we’re a high growth, low unemployment state.
@6 Maybe the Seattle Parks Department should rent the city land that Howard Schultz tried to steal for a driveway to him. He can afford to support the entire Parks Department budget. What is access to his home worth to him? Let’s find out.
How much is her home worth? A couple million? Or do you not have a realistic idea of what mortgage payments and rents look like?
@7, yes, I’m sure every last tech-sector job wold completely dry-up and the monied would flee the hell that Washington would become were a modest income tax instituted. Indeed, I, like every person who makes a good living in our wonderful state (if you’d rather live in Texas, be my guest) make all my life decisions on the basis of taxes and taxes alone. That, or it’s a fictional story that Republicans/big-business slobberers tell to scare us all into serving the interests of the wealthy. Enjoy your bedtime stories out there on the island. I’d hate to see the state institute that capricious toll on I-90. You’d be forced to leave your home due to the unbearable burden, no doubt.
@10. You’re free to give you money to charity anytime you like!
@9 yes, I know how much her home is worth. And the taxes do reflect market value. The house was purchased for $29,000 in 1970. So, she could sell the house and move to cheaper housing but at 91 she wants to stay in her home of 44 years. A fair, progressive tax system would not pit staying in your home against civic values. Your snide superior tone is unwarranted. Fuck you.
Progressives should keep in mind that it was the emotional appeal of people being forced out of their homes by property taxes that fueled California’s Prop 13 and all the disaster it brought on. In Washington, Gov. Mike Lowry has been the lone politician willing to even mention an income tax out loud (with his own staff telling to shut up). How many years ago was that? If Democrats want social justice and a strong economy they need to grow a spine.
You’re free to give you money to charity anytime you like!
I wasn’t aware that charities performed maintenance on public infrastructure (roads, transit, parks, schools). Thank you for telling us, in one quick sentence, just how mentally crippling a life of unearned privilege can become.
Please do tell us which of your taxes you hate the most, so we can raise them to the political limit, and then you can move to a low-tax paradise like Mississippi or wherever.
Appreciate the Goldy posts. Stranger’s loss — making it much less relevant.