Study: Washington state has USA's most regressive taxes

Washington state has the most regressive tax system in the country, according to a study by the Washington, D.C.-based Institute for Taxation and Economic Policy.

People earning less than $20,000 annually pay 17.3 percent of family income toward sales and excise taxes and property taxes, the report said. People making between $99,000 and $198,000 each year pay 7.6 percent toward their tax bill. Meanwhill, people in the top 1 percent of earners - those making more than $537,000 a year - pay just 2.9 percent, the report said.

http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattlepolitics/archives/185560.asp

I'm paying for a bunch of rich pricks.

...it is surprising to me that it is even heard. It is sad to me that Washingtonians do not seem to understand how bad this is for the poor and middle class. The poor think they don't any taxes, and the rich are sitting on their asses. Our legislators treat the poor as if they do not matter and keep cutting services, when in fact they are the biggest contributors.

Boeing has not paid a thing in over 10 years, they even got over $1 billion dollars in tax rebates for paying nothing, nanda not a red cent. I guess that is for being so "nice" to get communities to give them prime land, import and hire thousands and then lay them off to leave them destitute, then leave it after a few years for the grass to grow up in the cracking cement in the parking lots ~ and expect us to foot their bills for decimating our communities with pollution, poverty and unemployment. A few years ago they were crying in their beer about how "expensive" their unemployment insurance costs were. They tried to get us to vote in a referendum so they could get a break on unemployment but it failed in 2002. They leave these families in in desperate straits and when the issues of poverty hit these families, does Boeing pay for it? No! Instead they threaten to leave our state to go do it some more in SC and our politicians shake in their boots.

We have 2 of the richest men in the world living in our state and they are counted in for our "average" of wages when they calculate our revenue needs. If those two alone paid the proportion a welfare mom paid, our state would be in the black by almost a + 20 BILLION dollars. We won't even add in the Caseys, the Weyerhausers, the Nordstroms, and all the other multi-billionaires in our state who pay little or nothing that could contribute but won't ~ and they are the ones who use far more of our Commons than any poor person could hope to use such as our courts to enhance their riches, highways, and even our stadiums where a poor family could not even dream to darken the door, but for what they pay a dear price.

If you want to get mad read that study and you will see that, while other states have more progressive tax structures, the poor and middle class get it every time, just not so bad as here.

Cat in Seattle