Liveblogging the Revenue Debate

This is it

The revenue agreement.

Several things worth noting:

• Three of the provisions are temporary and expire in 2013 - the B&O surcharge on most service businesses, the beer tax increase and the pop tax increase.
• To protect really small service businesses, the B&O surcharge includes a doubling of the small business tax credit. The small business credit protects the first $46,600 in gross receipts for small businesses from any B&O tax. Service businesses that generate up to $80,000 in annual service income would have a smaller B&O tax bill under this proposal than they do today.
• None of Washington's breweries are expected to be impacted by the beer tax increase.
• A B&O tax credit for jobs at Washington's candy manufacturers will buffer them from any negative impact of the candy sales tax.
• The first $10 million in volume of soda is exempt.
  

The spreadsheet noted above does not include other revenue measures in separate bills. The cigarette tax has already passed the House (it's now in the Senate), the convention center bill has already been delivered to the Governor, and the lottery marketing bill has passed the Senate and awaits action in the House.

Total new revenue will equal $794.1. Again, much of the revenue is temporary.

We'll let you know when we expect to vote on the bill.

Revenue conference report will be released at 1:30 today

The long-awaited revenue conference report will be signed and presented today at 1:30 pm in the Senate Rules room. Revenue Committee chair Ross Hunter, vice-chair Bob Hasegawa, and ranking minority member Ed Orcutt were appointed to the conference committee from the House. The Senate also appointed three members.

We will post details of the report here as soon as possible.

The House will convene at 2:00 pm for the final few days of the 2010 session. We'll keep you posted as we progress.

We're getting closer

Leaders in both the House and Senate this afternoon are meeting with their respective members about a new revenue proposal. It does not include a sales tax increase. Details of the new package are not available quite yet but at least everyone is looking at the same piece of paper.

Legislators won't be back on the floor until Friday but if there appears to be agreement after today's discussions, legislators will be able to wrap up votes on the package and budgets this weekend.

We'll keep you posted!

Progress made toward final revenue agreement

As reported here yesterday afternoon, the Senate released a new revenue plan Monday. The House revenue team met twice during the day, and Finance Chair Ross Hunter announced the House has a slightly-tweaked counter-proposal that he was going to present to House members last evening.

It looks like the House and Senate will meet together this afternoon. Stay tuned!!

Senate offers up new revenue proposal

Read all about it here.

Most House members have not yet seen the proposal and still need to be briefed before anyone can claim an agreement has been reached. We'll keep you posted as things unfold.