Evan Smith: Fairley on a possible sales tax hike

By Evan Smith
ShorelineAreaNews Politics Writer

As the Legislative session neared its end Sunday, the State Senate voted for a temporary three-tenths-of-a-cent-per-dollar increase in the State sales tax.

The proposal that the Senate passed says that the increase will disappear in three years.

Democratic State Sen. Darlene Fairley of the 32nd District told me Monday that more voters will accept a temporary sales-tax increase than would accept a proposed income tax on wealthy people.

“Most regular people don't trust that, if we put an income tax on the wealthy, we won't be putting one on them next,” she said. “They don't feel that way about a temporary sales tax. For instance, in Grays Harbor county (one of the poorest) people say they can go for a temporary raise in sales tax (to a time certain). I think it's because they are more familiar with this tax.”

Fairley said that she couldn’t predict what the House would do, but Snohomish County Republican Rep. Mike Hope told me that he expected the House to reject the general sales-tax increase in favor of a series of specialized tax increases like a sales tax on bottled water and a business-and-occupations tax on accountants and attorneys.

He said that he expected such tax increases to backfire on Democrats because people that they fall on talk to other people.