Tax Reform Unlikely in Legislature's 2010 Session

At least, Rep. Ross Hunter doesn't think so ... and he would be central to any serious discussion. The chairman of the House Finance Committee told SeattlePI.com there's not enough time to do serious reform in the short session.

"I would not take on rewriting the state's tax code in a short session, without a huge amount of prep ahead of time. It is very easy to make very huge mistakes. That is something I would want to take a year or two."

Nonetheless, Sen. Majority Leader Lisa Brown continues to blog that reform is necessary.

I think it’s undeniable that our volatile tax structure makes Washington especially vulnerable to bad economic news at the national level, and compounded the impact of the current recession on the state budget.

More on this later ... probably much later. Hunter's right. There won't be big changes in tax structure next year. The budget's the priority. The Daily News editorial board makes it's preference clear:

Increasing the tax burden would be incredibly counterproductive at this moment, with the state economy still in a very bad way. Taking money out of people’s pockets would only delay the surge in consumer spending needed to spur the recovery and put people back to work. It also would guarantee further declines in state revenue, meaning still more cuts in government services. The majority ought to do as [Sen. Joe] Zarelli suggests — work with Republicans to find new, cost-cutting ways of delivering services.

We'll see.