New revenue would save jobs

By Rap Lewis
Last year’s deep cuts in the state budget cost the state’s work force an estimated 44,000 private and public sector jobs. Further cuts could eliminate as many as 33,600 more.
The estimates are those of the Economic Opportunity Institute (EOI), the Seattle-based public policy research center.
In contrast, EOI reports, “a combination of new state taxes and federal aid to fill the state’s budget gap could save up to 33,000 jobs.”
EOI cites the estimate of economist Mark Zandi of Moody’s Economy.com that every dollar of state spending generates $1.41 of economic activity. Private sector businesses benefit from expanded state purchases from suppliers and service providers, as well as from the added dollars workers with a regular paycheck are able to spend.
Restoring public sector jobs also sustains the important public services these workers perform, from park maintenance to help for the mentally ill.
To raise the essential revenue, EOI Policy Director Marilyn Watkins says the legislature should first tax profitable multi-state or multinational businesses, keeping money in this state that otherwise would have been spent elsewhere.
Then, Watkins says, legislators should extend the sales tax to those services used primarily by wealthy individuals and profitable corporations.
In the search for revenue, Watkins also calls for close scrutiny of business tax breaks.
“From 1994 to 2008, the Washington legislature passed 185 such special tax exemptions that now costs the state $2.5 billion in every biennial budget,” she notes.

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