Do you think Washington state taxes are burdensome? (Seattle, Wenatchee: sales, city hall)

[70Ford]

Washington has no income tax. It does have high taxes, though. They're just hidden in everything else as a "fee" or other tax. This might be relevant to your interests, if you are planning on moving to here.

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This isn't the only example. It's just one example. Here's the rub.
The same people who were in charge when this deficit occurred are the same people who are in charge now. Two things are happening in Washington state. Either (needed?) services go down, or costs to you go up...to provide those services. Or Washington goes bankrupt.

You've got ~100,000ish people or so in Washington drawing unemployment at ~350 bucks a week. You've got 4 billion in the unemplyment fund. I wonder if they are thinking what I am thinking.

Hrmmmm.

[Ira500]

....Or you find new sources of revenue for the government to provide those services.
Legalized pot or legalized prostitution, anyone?

[AzDreamer]

Washington usually ranks pretty well compared to other states for it's business climate. I know that isn't saying a lot, but at least we aren't driving away businesses like in California and New York.

[j_k_k]

Originally Posted by AzDreamer

Washington usually ranks pretty well compared to other states for it's business climate. I know that isn't saying a lot, but at least we aren't driving away businesses like in California and New York.

The biggest whines we get in that area are the high minimum wage and the fact that our insurance commissioners have actually refrained, at times, from serving as pliant rubber stamps and enablers for the insurance industry. However, I think the high minimum wage is a strong positive because it makes it just about feasible for a creative young person to live on it, which helps them get a start in the world. As for the insurance companies, I wish we had Deborah Senn back to beat them up some more. There were years I didn't cast a single major party vote except for Deborah Senn.

[cdelena]

Taxes per capita are one measurement but the burden on an individual varies widely depending upon how you live. If you have high income and low consumption and property ownership, WA can be viewed as a low tax state. If you have limited income but large property holdings it probably does not seem as reasonable.

The tax burden on business, high minimum wage, and prevalent union support makes WA less than attractive for business itself, but some executives oversee operations that see the lack of income tax and combined with other factors allow the state to still attract business. It is a very fine line that legislators should be acutely aware of.

I spent many years in Texas which is a no income tax state that is rated as a low tax burden, but the very high property tax burden (more than double WA) and high sales taxes (as much as WA) can make it a high tax for some individuals. Still, compared to areas in the NE and California, we are in relatively good shape.

The big issue in almost every state is the rapid acceleration of government spending at all levels... it is not sustainable and will collapse upon itself at varying rates.

[509]

I lived and payed taxes in California, Nevada, Colorado, Idaho, British Columbia, Washington...and looked really hard at moving to Oregon.

We had a moderate income with a low consumption lifestyle relative to most folks. By far, Washington has been the cheapest state to live it. Most taxes in Washington are voluntary in the sense they are related to your life choices. Even the property taxes are lower than most other states.

If you own a business remember the B&O tax is on GROSS not NET receipts so it makes it very difficult to avoid business taxes.

In other states income taxes and sales taxes on items such as food make it hard to avoid paying taxes. Oregon is in a league of its own. I still don't know how anybody lives in Oregon or what they spend their tax money on!!

If your into consumption of consumer goods Oregon or Montana would probably be a better bet. If you live a frugal lifestyle, Washington is dirt cheap.

[StealthRabbit]

Washington is dirt cheap

My WA dirt alone (not the house) costs me $12/day in property taxes. That is more than double what I spend on food. It is valued at $300k, but cost me $22k, assessor argues that I paid less than fair market value. (house is considerably extra)
I pay $14.8 / Thousand of very aggressive assessor valuation (he uses 'sweet' spots for comps).

I fought the taxes year before, so mine went up 16%, but 46 of my neighbors averaged less than 5% increases, none were over 12% increase. They told me I would regret fighting it....(They WILL win... THEY write the rules)

All WA taxes in perspective, and very dependent on SPECIFIC location... and activities / habits / personal spending / ownership profile.

WY might be considered dirt cheap for taxation (6% of value taxed on real property), AK would be best for taxes, but there are other expenses to living there. But no arguments... we're all screwed, just wait to see what Christine has up her sleeve next! It ain't pretty.

WA ranked #9 in total tax burden last I checked (up from #26, pre Christine)
That ranking has much greater impact as your personal income situation declines from the 'norm' (Such as being retired with little income, or being unemployed..., or having a house in a location that the assessor likes to visit (and live, when you have to leave) - 'rarities' such as that.)

[springshades]

I realize that statistics oftentimes change depending on who plays with the numbers and how they do it, but according to taxfoundation.org, Washington's state + local tax burden is 8.9% which is 35th in overall tax burden.

The only way I could see playing around enough with the numbers to shoot Washington all the way up to 9th would be if you ignored the tax rate and only looked at the total tax payments whereby you would have to ignore things like the fact that Washington state income is almost 10% higher per capita than the US average; maybe if you ignored local taxes, but I doubt that would shoot Washington up high enough by itself.

Also, according to their numbers Washington's tax burden has been fairly consistent since the last spike in the early-to-mid nineties.

Wyoming is definitely quite a bit cheaper as far as taxes go though.

[StealthRabbit]

Originally Posted by springshades

I realize that statistics oftentimes change depending on who plays with the numbers and how they do it, but according to taxfoundation.org, Washington's state + local tax burden is 8.9% which is 35th in overall tax burden.

That is why I don't use taxfoundation.org (Which I intially did ~ 3 yrs ago when starting this quest)

I was using some Gov data, which I went back to verify the spreadsheet I had downloaded, and was correct, but didn't have the 'source' URL marked. This will take some digging (Which I won't do till after thesis, ... may) Even the gov data I used was not applicable to my situation, as it specified property taxes as $10/Thou (mine are 14.8) and $227k as average WA home price, which is about $60k below our county data.

The ranking I show has had WA in the top 5 taxed states in 4 out of last 10 yrs. (But that is also very subjective and probably wrong, considering the expense of some states back east) A friend tried VT for a few years, that was a disaster for taxes.

[509]

Originally Posted by janb

My WA dirt alone (not the house) costs me $12/day in property taxes. That is more than double what I spend on food. It is valued at $300k, but cost me $22k, assessor argues that I paid less than fair market value.

In Chelan County my 1.0 acre of dirt is appraised at 50,000 by the assesor and my taxes are $346 a year or less than a dollar a day. My cabin is taxed at the same rate of .7% a year. My house in Wenatchee is taxed at 1.1% a year.

Not sure what county you live in, but we did not move to Oregon for the simple reason the taxes were high and government services were poor. You must be getting that Oregon influence from across the river.

The problem in eastern Washington is that our taxes are going over the hill to support the growth in western Washington. Right now a penny out of every gallon of gas I buy is sent over the Cascades. Don't even get me started on the stadiums. I would not mine paying the taxes, but Seattle is a horrible urban center to visit. At least you go to Portland, which at least is a nice city.

But I have lived in northern California, north Idaho, and eastern Washington and never had a Governor or US Senator to represent me. When the Supreme Court passed one man one vote in 1964 it shifted the political power in the states to the cities. And they have done an "outstanding" job of looking after their own interests.