Washingtonians still want a capital gains tax to fund public education, NPI poll confirms

A major­i­ty of Wash­ing­to­ni­ans remain sup­port­ive of levy­ing a cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy to ensure our state meets its para­mount duty of pro­vid­ing an amply fund­ed edu­ca­tion for all chil­dren resid­ing with­in its bor­ders, the North­west Pro­gres­sive Insti­tute’s most recent statewide sur­vey has confirmed.

57% of like­ly 2018 Wash­ing­ton vot­ers sur­veyed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling at the end of last month said they sup­port a cap­i­tal gains tax to fund edu­ca­tion, with 44% express­ing strong sup­port. Respon­dents were asked:

Do you strong­ly sup­port, some­what sup­port, some­what oppose or strong­ly oppose tax­ing the cap­i­tal gains of wealthy indi­vid­u­als to help pay for pub­lic schools, col­leges and universities?

Answers were as follows:

• Sup­port: 57%
  • Strong­ly sup­port: 44%
  • Some­what sup­port: 13%
• Oppose: 41%
  • Some­what oppose: 12%
  • Strong­ly oppose: 29%
• Not sure: 1%

Con­duct­ed by Pub­lic Pol­i­cy Polling, the sur­vey of 887 like­ly 2018 Wash­ing­ton State vot­ers was in the field from June 27th-28th, 2017; all respon­dents par­tic­i­pat­ed via land­line. The poll has a mar­gin of error of +/- 3.3% at the 95% con­fi­dence level.

NPI began ask­ing Wash­ing­to­ni­ans about their views on a cap­i­tal gains tax in 2015, find­ing 55% in sup­port then, with 43% strong­ly sup­port­ive. Our 2017 find­ing tracks with this base­line, demon­strat­ing vot­ers still want to see the wealthy step up and pay their fair share to sup­port our pub­lic schools, col­leges, and universities.

Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee has repeat­ed­ly pro­posed levy­ing a cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy, as have House Democ­rats, but Sen­ate Repub­li­cans have repeat­ed­ly refused to even con­sid­er the idea. How­ev­er, they may soon be out of power.

If the Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty is vic­to­ri­ous in this year’s spe­cial Sen­ate elec­tion in the 45th Dis­trict, the Sen­ate will be under new lead­er­ship by the end of the year — lead­er­ship that is open to pur­su­ing pro­gres­sive rev­enue reforms.

Man­ka Dhin­gra, the par­ty’s can­di­date in the 45th, is on record as in sup­port of a cap­i­tal gains tax, as Cross­cut report­ed today:

Dhin­gra, who says new rev­enue is need­ed, sup­ports imple­ment­ing cap­i­tal gains and pol­luter tax­es while clos­ing tax loopholes.

“We nev­er went and fixed all the [bud­get] cuts that were made dur­ing the time of the reces­sion,” she said.

“And now we are [at] a point of cri­sis,” she added, refer­ring to the edu­ca­tion as well as the men­tal health and crim­i­nal jus­tice sys­tems issues she has worked on for many years as a prosecutor.

“If you want to take care of the pop­u­la­tion, you have to make sure you are invest­ing in the population.”

NPI’s sur­vey also found that vot­ers across the state agree with Dhin­gra’s sen­ti­ment that new rev­enue is need­ed to sup­port pub­lic education.

Respon­dents were asked:

Do you strong­ly agree, some­what agree, some­what dis­agree or strong­ly dis­agree with the fol­low­ing state­ment: Wash­ing­ton’s pub­lic schools are under­fund­ed, and we need to raise state rev­enue to ful­ly fund them?

60% of respon­dents said they agreed with that state­ment, while only 37% dis­agreed. Answers in each cat­e­go­ry were as follows:

• Agree: 60%
  • Strong­ly agree: 39%
  • Some­what agree: 31%
• Dis­agree: 37%
  • Some­what dis­agree: 17%
  • Strong­ly dis­agree: 20%
• Not sure: 4%

The Leg­is­la­ture is set to adjourn its third over­time ses­sion today. It’s like­ly law­mak­ers will be going home with­out hav­ing sent Gov­er­nor Jay Inslee a cap­i­tal bud­get to sign into law. The House vot­ed out a cap­i­tal bud­get bill weeks ago with hard­ly any dis­sent­ing votes, but the Sen­ate has not fol­lowed suit despite repeat­ed calls for action by Inslee and edu­ca­tion advocates.

The fail­ure to pass a cap­i­tal bud­get will jeop­ar­dize school con­struc­tion projects all over the state and ham­per elect­ed lead­ers from argu­ing the state has made mean­ing­ful progress towards com­ply­ing with the Supreme Court’s McCleary orders.

The Leg­is­la­ture did man­age to agree on an oper­at­ing bud­get that will, at least tem­porar­i­ly, raise some addi­tion­al mon­ey for our schools through an increase in the state prop­er­ty tax levy (though that comes with lim­i­ta­tions on local levy authority).

Edu­ca­tion advo­cates and coun­sel for the McCleary plain­tiffs have stat­ed emphat­i­cal­ly that this rev­enue infu­sion isn’t enough to meet the state’s con­sti­tu­tion­al oblig­a­tions.

And the Wash­ing­ton Bud­get & Pol­i­cy Cen­ter says the rev­enue gen­er­at­ed by the prop­er­ty tax will not be sus­tain­able over the long term due to the fail­ure to repeal Tim Eyman’s I‑747 and replace it with pro­gres­sive prop­er­ty tax reform — an assess­ment NPI con­curs with.

Pro­gres­sive rev­enue reforms like a cap­i­tal gains tax are sore­ly need­ed if Wash­ing­ton’s para­mount duty is to be met, and if the state is to become a mod­el of fis­cal health.

NPI’s research has con­sis­tent­ly found that vot­ers would like to see their elect­ed rep­re­sen­ta­tives agree on leg­is­la­tion to over­haul the state’s upside down, regres­sive tax code. That did­n’t hap­pen this year, but there’s always next year — and in 2018, should the Sen­ate get a new major­i­ty, the prospects could be much improved.