Lets just get a pulse on this. So in a proposal from the Govenor of Washington comes this pitch of a "temporary" sale tax to help with the nearly $1.7 billion dollars the state's budget is short. So we know that there are some serious problems with the state budget but another tax? I don't know about you but isn't Washington State already one of the most taxed states in the US?

Gov. Chris Gregoire proposed $1.7 billion in cuts to state government Monday but said she wants voters to approve a temporary sales tax increase to prevent some of the more severe reductions, including a shortened school year.

Gregoire’s plan to address a projected deficit of $1.4 billion also includes reductions in university support and the elimination of medical programs for 55,000 low-income residents.

The Democrat, entering her final year in office, suggested up to $835 million in revenue to buy back some of the cuts. She said the priority is a voter-approved temporary half-cent tax increase that would bring in $494 million through 2013. That tax increase would expire in 2015. Gregoire said that under the bill she will present to the Legislature, she wants a special election to vote on the tax to take place in March.

The majority of the money raised by the sales tax would go to education to put back into higher education and ensuring the school year isn’t shortened. It would also restore money to public safety.

“I have seen the ramifications of the cuts,” Gregoire said. “I can’t live with it.”

Gregoire said that she believes that if residents know there is a real need, and that if the money will go to specific programs, they will support it. She planned to start touring the state Tuesday to discuss her proposals, with stops in Vancouver, Yakima, Spokane and Seattle.

Would you support a "Temporary" sales tax increase?

Read more:  at Tri-City Herald.Com

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