Washington Senators, Representatives Call for Sales Tax Relief After House Chairman Hedges on Inclusion in Tax Legislation

(Washington, D.C.) – After recent reports of progress on sales tax deductibility in House of Representatives tax legislation was denied by the Chairman writing the bill, Washington state’s U.S. Senators and several Representatives wrote a letter today calling for immediate inclusion of the proposal in the House version of the FSC/EIT bill.

In the letter to House Ways and Means Chairman Bill Thomas, the legislators referred to media reports early this week announcing that the bill would include deductibility and the conflicting comment Tuesday from Chairman Thomas himself that, “Some people have gotten out ahead of it. Nothing’s in and nothing’s out.”

Signing on to the letter were Washington Senators Patty Murray and Maria Cantwell and Representatives Brian Baird, Norm Dicks, Jim McDermott, Adam Smith, Jay Inslee and Rick Larson.

The Washington state lawmakers today cited their long battle for the change and the inability of recent tax legislation to improve economic conditions as reasons to include this job-promoting provision in the final House FSC/ETI tax bill.

“We believe we should take our nation’s tax policy in a different direction. Inclusion of the sales tax deductibility provision in the FSC/ETI bill would be a first step in providing some real relief to our constituents,” the lawmakers wrote.