Sims Like a Good Idea
Today is primary day here in Washington. The biggest race on the ballot is for the Democratic gubernatorial nomination. Attorney General Christine Gregoire and King County Executive Ron Sims are battling to take on Republican Dino Rossi in a bid to succeed the outgoing (Democratic, and entirely ineffectual) Gary Locke. I plan to vote for the winner regardless, as Rossi is a crypto-winger of the Rick Santorum variety, and Locke’s tenure has proven that even the worst Democrat can’t do all that much harm. Still, Sims has distinguished himself on a key issue in such a bold way that he deserves mention and enthusiastic support.
Gregoire, the favorite, is a moderate with studiously inoffensive positions on every imaginable issue, and her ads promote her “up from the working class, mom for family values” biography. Sims, an African-American, has won re-election twice by big margins in the state’s largest and richest county, where all minorities probably comprise less than 25% of the population. He has a good record of success and enjoys bipartisan support. Conventional wisdom has it that Eastern Washington would not be as tolerant as his home constituency, but that need not necessarily worry him: a good turnout in Seattle, Tacoma and Everett (almost assured because of the raging desire to oust Bush in these parts) is enough to offset the rest of the state in a normal election.
On most issues, there is little difference between Sims and Gregoire. Gregoire’s mysterious appeal to state Democrats rests primarily on three facts: she’s white, she’s a woman, and she’s won statewide races twice before, which puts her in the company of our two innocuous United States Senators, Patty Murray (also up for re-election) and Maria Cantwell. If Gregoire and Murray win, Washington will be the first state in the Union with women in the three most powerful statewide offices (and maybe more if Deborah Senn wins downticket to succeed Gregoire as Attorney General). This is likely to play well in the wealthy suburbs east of Seattle, and won’t hurt elsewhere in the state, either. Most Democrats don’t want to roll the dice with Sims, since Rossi comes across so well as the nice suburban dad next door and Sims doesn’t look like he lives next door to anyone east of the Cascades.
Faced with an uphill battle, Sims decided to stake out a position on the most contentious issue in Washington politics, one which no statewide official of either party is eager to address.
Here’s the deal: Washington is one of the few states in the Union with no state income tax. Instead, we have one of the highest sales taxes in the country (higher in some counties, which tack tenths-of-a-cent on for various projects and purposes), and it hits everything except food. We also have high real estate taxes, one of the highest gas taxes in the country, and a hideously-regressive business tax that is assessed on gross revenues rather than profits. It’s plain obvious that we’d be better off putting in an income tax and getting rid of all these other blunt-instrument revenue devices, as our cousin to the south, Oregon, has done. And that’s exactly what Sims proposes to do.
The problem is, the very mention of an income tax horrifies most citizens here, especially those who migrated from eastern states where such taxes are exceptionally odious and require the same kind of burdensome record-keeping as the federal income tax. When you look at the numbers of Sims’ plan, it actually reduces the total tax burden on some 78% of the state population (while modestly increasing the taxes on the upper 10%, likely including yours truly). It will also save state taxpayers $1.5 billion per year by being able to deduct state income taxes from their federal tax returns, which they can’t do with the sales tax. Still, that may not be enough to overcome the visceral reaction that most have on first hearing the words “income tax.”
I favor progressive taxes on general principles, since it strikes me as fair that those who benefit most from the favorable economic climate and infrastructure of the state should support it most. But as a homeowner and a small business owner, I can also get behind a property tax exemption and the repeal of the awful Business and Occupation (B&O) tax, which is about as hostile to entrepreneurship and free enterprise as you’ll find anywhere. Dropping the sales tax will also help a lot of businesses in towns bordering Oregon, and will give a lot of people at the bottom income bracket a much-needed 8.7% discount on the purchase of everything except food (not taxed) and cigarettes (which almost certainly won’t be cut). It will also help close a yawning revenue gap in the budget and fund necessary state services. If getting this system costs me a few extra hours in record-keeping, so be it. In fact, for me it would be a wash, since I need to file my B&O returns quarterly under the current system.
Sims makes about as persuasive a case as possible, given the hostile climate for this kind of proposal. Flying in the face of tax “simplification,” Sims is bravely championing a system that is more fair and less financially burdensome, albeit more complex. It’s refreshing to see a politician who takes his job seriously enough to consider an approach that takes a certain amount of explaining, but then actually makes sense. Kerry’s health plan is another example of such a policy. It’s kind of an intelligence test for the electorate, to see if they can identify their self-interest in a plan that can’t be boiled down to a soundbite.
It remains to be seen if voters will see the merit in Sims’ bold proposal. I would be disappointed, but not surprised, if my fellow Washingtonians opt for the “simple” status quo or are convinced by specious arguments that an income tax will cost them more (it won’t, mostly). In the general election, you can bet that Rossi will try to make any change in the tax structure sound like the end of the world and the dawn of the People’s Republic of Cascadia. Still, win or lose, he deserves credit for raising the issue and framing it in a really constructive way, and if Gregoire, who has been strangely silent on the issue, comes out on top tomorrow, maybe she will incorporate some aspect of it into her platform.
So, if you live in Washington and are one of the few people who hasn’t already voted by absentee, give a look to Ron Sims. And if you live elsewhere in the country, keep an eye on this race to see if people’s fear and dread of filling out tax forms outweighs the incentives of a lower, fairer and better-distributed tax system and the benefits of fiscal responsibility.
8:47:49 AM 
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