Taxes? Who the heck knows?

Legislative Democrats' tussle over taxes continues, behind the scenes, as does their loathing for a no-new-revenue state budget. The House budget panel pumped out an all-cuts plan earlier this week and a somewhat different Senate's version is still subterranean. Legislative leaders, with no overt encouragement from GovGreg, are toying with tax ideas. Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, D-Spokane, is leading the "conversation" for a flat rate income tax on folks with high-end income (say, $250k or $500k a year), but that ballot measure isn't considered likely to pass before the session wraps up April 26th. The soak-the-rich idea polls well nationally, but the whole income tax question is considered politically risk in this Washington. Brown, a potential contender for governor in 2012, says she isn't dropping the idea. As for a voter-approved tax hike that could help "buy back" budget cuts, that's also iffy and squishy right now. We've heard about a package of "sin" taxes on booze, smokes and so forth, and increasing talk of a sales tax surcharge of perhaps three-tenths of a percentage point (6.8 percent instead of 6.5), perhaps with a tax rebate for lower incomes. As you can imagine, the tax question is quite touchy, both to take the vote in Olympia and then to await the verdict of a skeptical electorate this fall. (Under an Eyman initiative, lawmakers can't pass taxes in Olympia unless they have a two-thirds vote in both houses, a near-impossibility, given conservatives in both parties.) A new poll out today from Portland pollsters Moore Insight tested a temporary full 1 percentage point "to ensure that education and other important state programs have adequate funding." Support? 39 percent. Thumbs down? 56. Interest groups pursuing a tax package have launched TV ads, and there is plenty of blowback, as well. Stay tuned, children.