House finance committee passes tax increases

Yesterday morning the House finance committee passed a substitute version of committee chair Reuven Carlyle’s tax proposal, which we described in a this policy brief. The substitute bill (SHB 2038) eliminated increases in taxes on beer, insurance agent commissions, stevedoring and janitorial services that would have been imposed in the original bill. The removed tax increases were expected to raise $168.8 million during the 2013-15 biennium. The tax increases that remain in the bill are expected to raise $899.6 million during the biennium. (The chair’s proposal includes additional increases totalling $275.4 million that are contained in three other bills: HB 1920, HB 1971 and HB 2041.)