Income Tax Debate Heats Up Ahead of Repeal Vote + WA Mayors Press Ferguson Over State Drug Policies

The debate over Washington's new income tax, for now a millionaires' tax, took place last night at the Bellevue Chamber Eastside Leadership Conference.

And KOMO News' Chris Daniels was the moderator.

We had Senator Manka Dhingra, who is a Democrat from Redmond, and Dr. Soleil Boyd, executive director of the Children's Alliance.

They were there in support of the millionaires tax.

And then on the other side, you had minority leader for the House, Drew Stokesbary, who represents Auburn, and co- uh, the founder of Let's Go Washington, the ones behind Initiative 645, the repeal of the income tax, uh, Brian Haywood, who was there.

So it was two and two, uh, on the stage with that moderator, uh, from KOMO.

Now, in this first clip, this is that Dr. Soleil Boyd, and I-- forgive me if I'm saying her name wrong, um, who argued the income tax is necessary, she said, to balance Washington's regressive tax code and create what she called a more fair tax system.

And our regressive tax code is only second to one in the nation.

We make the lowest income among us pay the most of their income in taxes.

For a family making $33,000, or an individual making $33,000 or less, their tax rate is about 13.8%.

Um, for those making over a million dollars, their tax rate is 4%.

You tell me if that sounds or feels right, and it definitely is not right, and it affects all of us every day.

[clears throat] We are really here in support of the millionaires tax and a strong no on I645, because it's going to keep this highly aggressive system, regressive system in place.

And the difference in, you know, 13.8% a year, um, i- in the tax rate for low-income families, that's gonna be changed.

That's gonna go down slightly because of what the millionaires tax will do.

It will take the tax, the sales tax off of certain items, hygiene, diapers, other things, and that could be about 200 bucks back in the pocket of a low-income family.

Now, Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary said that Olympia's spending addiction is the real problem here, noting the massive explosion in the size of the state budget just since he's been there.

I think he said 12 years he's been in Olympia, and it went from, like, 30 billion up to $80 billion in that short dozen years.

He also pointed to the political imbalance in Olympia, and majority Democrats holding every statewide elected office.

You know, first, I think the, the most important thing we've gotta do, uh, is solve some of the structural budget problems.

I'm 41 years old.

Uh, I was born January 16th, 1985.

Uh, that date is significant because that is the last date a Republican was governor of this state.

For every single day of my life, this state has been governed by a member of one political party, and that means that every single state agency head has been appointed by the member of one political party.

Every single budget submitted by a department has been submitted by the head of a department, uh, appointed by a governor from the same political party.

The debate over Washington's new income tax, for now a millionaires' tax, took place last night at the Bellevue Chamber Eastside Leadership Conference.

And KOMO News' Chris Daniels was the moderator.

We had Senator Manka Dhingra, who is a Democrat from Redmond, and Dr. Soleil Boyd, executive director of the Children's Alliance.

They were there in support of the millionaires tax.

And then on the other side, you had minority leader for the House, Drew Stokesbary, who represents Auburn, and co- uh, the founder of Let's Go Washington, the ones behind Initiative 645, the repeal of the income tax, uh, Brian Haywood, who was there.

So it was two and two, uh, on the stage with that moderator, uh, from KOMO.

Now, in this first clip, this is that Dr. Soleil Boyd, and I-- forgive me if I'm saying her name wrong, um, who argued the income tax is necessary, she said, to balance Washington's regressive tax code and create what she called a more fair tax system.

And our regressive tax code is only second to one in the nation.

We make the lowest income among us pay the most of their income in taxes.

For a family making $33,000, or an individual making $33,000 or less, their tax rate is about 13.8%.

Um, for those making over a million dollars, their tax rate is 4%.

You tell me if that sounds or feels right, and it definitely is not right, and it affects all of us every day.

[clears throat] We are really here in support of the millionaires tax and a strong no on I645, because it's going to keep this highly aggressive system, regressive system in place.

And the difference in, you know, 13.8% a year, um, i- in the tax rate for low-income families, that's gonna be changed.

That's gonna go down slightly because of what the millionaires tax will do.

It will take the tax, the sales tax off of certain items, hygiene, diapers, other things, and that could be about 200 bucks back in the pocket of a low-income family.

Now, Minority Leader Drew Stokesbary said that Olympia's spending addiction is the real problem here, noting the massive explosion in the size of the state budget just since he's been there.

I think he said 12 years he's been in Olympia, and it went from, like, 30 billion up to $80 billion in that short dozen years.

He also pointed to the political imbalance in Olympia, and majority Democrats holding every statewide elected office.

You know, first, I think the, the most important thing we've gotta do, uh, is solve some of the structural budget problems.

I'm 41 years old.

Uh, I was born January 16th, 1985.

Uh, that date is significant because that is the last date a Republican was governor of this state.

For every single day of my life, this state has been governed by a member of one political party, and that means that every single state agency head has been appointed by the member of one political party.

Every single budget submitted by a department has been submitted by the head of a department, uh, appointed by a governor from the same political party.