Helen Sommers: An Oral History

Chapter 25
Sales Tax vs. Income Tax &
Referendum/Initiative
Monahan: The issue of a state sales tax vs. a state
income tax has been a difficult issue going back
more than 80 years. In the 1930s, Washington State
adopted the sales tax as a method of raising revenue
to operate state government. Over the past 80 or so
years, the state sales taxes grew from about 3-cents
on the dollar to today’s 8.5 percent (plus or minus,
depending on the city and the county). What are
your thoughts on the
tax system in Washington
State?
Representative Sommers:
The viewpoint is that
the Income Tax falls
more on the higherincome
payers across
the board. Although,
that may not be quite
as true or of the same
magnitude as we experienced
in the past,
people with higher incomes
buy a lot more
things where they pay
a significant sales tax.
The issue of the Sales
Tax also has been controversial
throughout
those 80 years. To many
legislators over the decades,
the concept of a
sales tax is a problem because it affects the state’s
lowest-paid workers who are required to pay the
same amount as the richest residents of Washington.
An income tax is seen by some as less discriminatory
toward people who have the lowest wages, but it
is opposed by the higher-income taxpayers who don’t
want to pay taxes based on their annual revenue.
Monahan: For all 36 years you spent in the House
representing the 36th District, you have supported
the income tax as a more fair approach to paying
taxes based on one’s ability to pay. Many times,
since you were elected in 1973, the Legislature has
tried to deal with the issue of the income tax, to
no avail.
Representative Sommers: Shortly before I came to
the House, Governor Dan Evans in 1970 proposed
an income tax by amending the state constitution
to enact a graduated income tax which would
benefit those whose income is the least. It passed
the Legislature, but it was not passed by the voters.
Over the years, a number of ballot measures
have made it very difficult to raise taxes. Tim Eyman’s
Initiative-960 requires a two-thirds vote for
the Legislature to raise taxes, and that makes it
almost impossible. It’s very difficult to get public
support for taxes, when
perception is: ‘that will
cost me more.’
Initiative/Referendum.
That’s something this
state has dealt with for a
long time and it’s still not
resolved. The sales tax
has been a fairly good
method to raise money
for state and local government
programs, but it
is harder on the low and
middle-income people.
Monahan: The
Initiative/Referendum
process to allow ballot
initiatives was established
by Washington voters
in 1912. The citizens of
Washington nearly 100
years ago followed the
‘populism’ of Oregon
with the creation of the
Discuss your view of the Initiative/Referendum
as it is in Washington. Has Tim Eyman’s career of
creating initiatives as a personal business enterprise
been detrimental to the efforts of the Legislature