Building an economy that works. For everyone.
Budget cuts: Costly. Our Quality of life: Priceless.
Facebook
Washington’s families, workers, and businesses deserve a tax system that improves our quality of life.
From roads and utilities to schools and parks, police and firefighters to safety inspectors and environmental scientists, everyone benefits from steady investment in public structures that yield well-educated citizens, profitable businesses, safe communities and a healthy environment.
But our state suffers from a structural deficit, with tax revenues over time growing at a slower pace than the economy and demands for public services. By failing to capture revenue from a changing economy, we are starving our economy of the very resources we need for long-term growth and broad economic opportunity.
Washington needs new sources of revenue to support investments in early learning, K-12 and higher education. EOI is putting forward concrete proposals for new sources of revenue to bring our education system up to modern standards, support important public investments, while making our tax system more equitable for everyone.
Recent Publications and News Highlights
Washington's deficit isn't going away: here's why
04.27.2009
| Washington’s budget woes will outlast the recession because the
state also has a structural deficit. Without raising rates or adding
new taxes, our state is losing the ability to provide the kind of
education system and infrastructure we need to thrive in the modern
economy.
An Income Tax for Washington: Questions and Answers
04.22.2009
| The recession highlights how difficult
it is to raise additional revenues to maintain and improve public
services, given Washington’s outmoded and regressive tax structure.
Could now be the time to implement a new tax structure including an
income tax in Washington State? Full Report
»
Stalking the elusive state-tax dollar
03.12.2009 | Crosscut | They say that when God closes a door, he opens a window. Some people certainly hope that Washington’s current budget crisis, which seems to have slammed so many doors, has pried open the long-stuck window through which an income tax could slip into this state. At the very least, the budget crisis has forced key legislators to talk seriously about a tax increase.
Success Story
EOI’s analysis and public education efforts have supported new funding to expand the Basic Health Plan for low-income working adults, boost educational achievement, and repair our roads. We’ve helped slow down the proliferation of special interest tax breaks and raised interest in modernizing our tax system and making it fairer.
Policy Focus
Hate the idea of an income tax? Here's why you shouldn't.
Taxing high incomes can reduce regressive taxes, ease the structural deficit, and improve public services.
A simple and fair way to start fixing our tax structure
Expanding the sales tax to selected goods and services may be the simplest way to expand Washington’s tax base.
Returning a civic dividend on corporate profits
Taxing windfall profits will help our state get on the road to sustainable development while improving our domestic and economic security.
Special tax cuts cost everyone
Tax exemptions add up to a lot of money that could instead improve public services to help all businesses prosper.
Staff Contact
This
work is licensed under a Creative
Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported License
from the Economic Opportunity Institute. Liquid layout thanks
to Matthew James Taylor.