The state has a financial crisis on its hands, so what issue has sparked the most response from 10th District voters?
If you guessed teacher salaries, classroom size, health care reductions, or park closures you’d be wrong. The hot issue locally has been a proposed tax on recreational vehicles.
“We’ve got the most e-mails by far” on the RV tax, state Rep. Barry Sehlin told a crowd of about 60 at the Oak Harbor Senior Center two weeks ago. He and fellow Rep. Barbara Bailey and Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen — who visited the center as part of a series of “town hall meetings” March 22 — all agreed that was the hot issue for the district this legislative session.
A flurry of negative e-mails and phone calls to legislators worked. The proposal is dead, and Sehlin went to great lengths to describe how dead. “It’s as dead as dead can be,” he said. “It was never really going anywhere. As sure as anything this one’s got a spike through its heart.”
There were both House and Senate versions of a bill that would have added an excise tax to RV sales, with proceeds earmarked for state parks. Opponents, including David Mitchell of Oak Harbor, argued it was unfair to tax such a small group of people for such a widespread benefit.
Sehlin said this session of the Legislature is unlikely to approve an RV tax or any other tax focused on a small group of people.
“I don’t see a bunch of little taxes,” he said. “A $50 million (tax increase) vote is as tough as a $500 million vote.”
The legislators and their constituents talked about other types of taxes at the meeting. Somebody suggested a state income tax, but all three legislators panned that idea. Sehlin said Washington’s present tax system provides “one of the most stable tax bases in the country,” while Bailey added “you can’t tax your way out of a recession.”
Haugen has long supported a state income tax, but after 20 years in the Legislature, there hasn’t been much progress in achieving that goal. Such a tax would allow elimination of the business and occupation tax, she said, describing it as “a really bad tax.” She said Washington has “the most regressive tax structure in the nation,” and that some day it should be addressed.
But even Haugen said an income tax is no answer to the state’s projected $2.5 billion shortfall for the next biennium. An income tax would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, and then would have to be approved by a vote of the people. All agreed that won’t happen in the foreseeable future.
None of the three elected representatives talked about specific budget cuts that may be made this session, but all said cuts will hurt.
“In my 20 years this is the worst the budget has ever been for the cutting we have to do,” Haugen said.
The Legislature is currently considering Governor Locke proposed budget, which would freeze teacher salaries and reduce state-provided health insurance rolls. The House and Senate will have their own proposals, which Sehlin said will soon be made public.
