Dayton Chronicle - Your Hometown News Source

How much do you pay in taxes and which level of government imposes that tax burden? A new bipartisan bill introduced by the chair and ranking member of the Senate Ways & Means Committee would help...

In 2019, nearly 80% of Spokane voters approved a city charter amendment requiring collective bargaining negotiations in the city to be open to public observation. Last week, however, the state Supreme...

Editor’s Note: This is the second of a two-part examination of state constitutions and how certain property is taxed in various states, continued from the September 1, 2022 edition of the Dayton...

Editor’s Note: This examination of state constitutions and how certain property is taxed in various states will appear in two parts. This is the first of two. Although most state constitutions...

In preparation for the coming state supreme court hearing on the capital gains income tax (oral arguments date not yet set), I wanted to see how many times lawmakers have proposed an income tax. We...

Capital gains income tax supporters set up surveillance system for I-1929 petition gatherers Proponents of the unconstitutional capital gains income tax are working overtime to prevent voters from...

As expected, the I-1929 (capital gains tax repeal) campaign officially filed a legal challenge yesterday to the Attorney General's ballot title and summary for the proposed ballot measure. The AG's...

When a court rules that a tax is “is declared unconstitutional and invalid and, therefore, is void and inoperable as a matter of law,” what happens next? One would think that means efforts by...

Two years. We have been living under two straight years of governance via emergency orders while bypassing the normal public legislative process. The Governor indicated yesterday the third straight...

OLYMPIA–If Washington was ever going to see a broad-based sales tax cut, this was the year. Now that the House and Senate have released their 2022 supplemental budget proposals, however, we know...

When finally given the chance to provide comment more than 10,000 Washingtonians signed in for the public hearings on HB 1772 and SB 5909 to reform the state’s emergency powers. Despite the huge...

OLYMPIA–Douglas County Superior Court heard oral arguments in the capital gains income tax case last Friday (2/4). The judge didn’t ask any questions until the very end of the hearing. Then he...

Washington’s 2021-23 budget is balanced, there are billions in reserves, and state revenues have grown substantially over the past year. In response to this strong fiscal outlook, two major...

Spokane County Commissioners unanimously adopted a resolution opposing a local income tax December 14. Spokane County is the third county to act, joining Franklin County and Yakima County as well as...

The opening briefs were filed yesterday in the capital gains income tax lawsuit. Included was a declaration I submitted to the court detailing a decade of my research on this topic with source emails...

I recently sent the legislature a public records request for the internal caucus discussions concerning the Governor’s emergency powers. I’ve received an initial batch of records with more to...

Last month the Attorney General filed a response to the capital gains income tax lawsuit. The trial date for this case is scheduled for February 4, 2022. There were a couple of interesting statements...

The legislature worked hard to keep voters from weighing in directly on the new capital gains income tax with a laughable emergency clause to prevent our right of referendum. Though some call...

On the same day the Governor ordered state employees (and others) to be vaccinated or face employment termination, state employee unions announced Inslee has agreed to re-open their 2021-23 contracts...

On the same day the Governor ordered state employees (and others) to be vaccinated or face employment termination, state employee unions announced Inslee has agreed to re-open their 2021-23 contracts...

While we wait for the capital gains income tax litigation to work its way through the courts, the University of Washington’s Law School has posted an interesting video: “Three-minute Legal Tips: C...

We have our first Title Only bill of the session–HB 1564: Concerning transportation spending. It was introduced on March 28 and has already been scheduled for a public hearing on April 1 (no...

OLYMPIA–During last Saturday’s Senate floor debate before the 25-24 passage of the income tax on capital gains (SB 5096), there was discussion about allowing voters to run a referendum on the new...

It is painfully clear that the majority party legislative leadership in the House and Senate have no intention of debating if checks and balances are needed on the Governor’s emergency powers. All...

With each passing day of session bringing a new tax proposal, I have to go back and review the state’s revenue forecast and budget balance sheet to make sure I’m not missing something. Yep, looks...