An excerpt from The Olympian column:
I am one of only two House members who voted against the three new tax exemptions that have been proposed this session. All three of these exemptions represent great causes, but in the absence of a clear strategy for dealing with current and future tax exemptions, we must draw the line.
As a state, we give out more than 500 “tax breaks” that cost us over $6.5 billion each year, with more added every year. Most of them were borne out of a belief that they would save jobs or lower costs for consumers. There is little evidence that tax breaks accomplish their stated purpose.
To date, only 17 percent of our state’s tax exemptions have ever even been reviewed. We have no idea if these tax breaks to narrow interests outweigh the impact of lost revenue to our schools and the most needy.
Before we consider kicking thousands of people off the Basic Health Plan, stuffing more kids into classrooms, and drastically reducing critical services for seniors, we need to scrutinize every dollar we dole out on tax exemptions and ensure the benefits outweigh the costs to education and health care services we are proposing to cut.
Read the entire op-ed here.
