Proposal to fund childcare with a capital gains tax advances in the Washington State Senate

Today was a big day for pro­gres­sive tax reform in Wash­ing­ton State.

For the first time ever, a pro­pos­al to levy a cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy and invest the rev­enue into our under­fund­ed soci­etal needs was approved by the Wash­ing­ton State Sen­ate’s Ways & Means Com­mit­tee, the pow­er­ful bud­get writ­ing com­mit­tee that has juris­dic­tion over fis­cal bills.

I tes­ti­fied in favor of the pro­pos­al, Sen­ate Bill 5096, last month, when it had its pub­lic hear­ing. Spon­sored by Sen­a­tor June Robin­son, it would (in its new­ly amend­ed form) raise approx­i­mate­ly $550 mil­lion a year, which would be invest­ed into child­care and reduc­ing inequity in our upside down tax code.

“We heard great feed­back from com­mu­ni­ty mem­bers across the state, in large part thanks to remote tes­ti­mo­ny mak­ing it eas­i­er for folks to weigh in,” said Robin­son (D‑38th Dis­trict: Everett and Sno­homish Coun­ty) after the vote.

“By rais­ing the thresh­old and expand­ing exemp­tions, this cap­i­tal gains pro­pos­al would increase the share of state tax­es paid by just 2% of the very wealth­i­est Wash­ing­to­ni­ans,” the Sen­a­tor explained. “It’s a rea­son­able way of ask­ing those wealthy few to join the rest of us in build­ing a stronger, health­i­er state for all Wash­ing­to­ni­ans – a state in which they have thrived.”

“This is a key first step,” Robin­son added, “toward a more fair and equi­table tax sys­tem – one that asks the wealth­i­est among us to be part of invest­ing in our state’s thriv­ing future; one that fos­ters, not sti­fles, a flour­ish­ing econ­o­my and the health and suc­cess of all Washingtonians.”

We agree.

We have been urg­ing the Sen­ate to adopt a cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy for more than half a decade now. We’re thrilled to see this pop­u­lar pro­gres­sive tax reform idea get the vote of con­fi­dence it deserves from the Ways & Means Com­mit­tee. The next stop is the Sen­ate Rules Com­mit­tee, which has the pow­er to put the bill on the floor of the Sen­ate for debate and a vote on final passage.

The roll call on SB 5096 was as follows:

Vot­ing for a DO PASS Rec­om­men­da­tion (13): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tors Chris­tine Rolfes, David Frockt, June Robin­son, Reuven Car­lyle, Steve Con­way, Jean­nie Darneille, Man­ka Dhin­gra, Bob Hasegawa, Sam Hunt, Karen Keis­er, Marko Liias, Jamie Ped­er­sen, Lisa Wellman

Vot­ing for a DO NOT PASS Rec­om­men­da­tion (10): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tors Lyn­da Wil­son, Sharon Brown, Jim Hon­ey­ford, Mark Schoesler, Chris Gildon, Ron Muz­za­ll, Ann Rivers, Judy War­nick, Kei­th Wag­oner, Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Mark Mullet

Vot­ing WITHOUT Rec­om­men­da­tion (1) (declin­ing to sup­port the bill, a form of no vote): Demo­c­ra­t­ic Sen­a­tor Kevin Van De Wege

Not Vot­ing (1): Repub­li­can Sen­a­tor John Braun

Wash­ing­to­ni­ans strong­ly sup­port adopt­ing a cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy. We know because we’ve been ask­ing them for six years run­ning how they feel about the idea. Though most of our ques­tions have relied on the assump­tion that the rev­enue from a cap­i­tal gains tax would be ded­i­cat­ed to pub­lic schools, col­leges, and uni­ver­si­ties, child­care is a great pur­pose to ded­i­cate the fund­ing to, and there’s research show­ing vot­ers feel that’s a good use for the mon­ey, too.

State Rep­re­sen­ta­tive Tana Senn (D‑41st Dis­trict: Mer­cer Island, Belle­vue, New­cas­tle) is work­ing on a sim­i­lar pro­pos­al in the House. We’re track­ing both bills in our State­house Bill Track­er, which you’ll find on NPI’s Advo­ca­cy page.