Here's an excerpt:
Billig: Banks have revenue from different sources. One of the sources is from mortgage interest. So when you pay your mortgage, part of what you’re paying is interest and that is revenue. So all businesses – I have a business, and I pay B&O tax on all of our income, and the banks don’t. They don’t pay B&O tax on the interest that they get on first mortgages. So this would basically cap that exemption so that they would be paying B&O tax just like any other business.
Q: And where would that money go?
Billig: It’s about $160 million would be generated and that would be enough to fund smaller class size – basically buy back smaller class sizes in K-3 across the state. And we know that class size matters, class size makes a difference.
Check out the rest of the interview here.
