Tax justice in Washington state : perspectives from participants in a tax justice campaign an analysis

The study of improving on the U.S. tax justice movement is not one that researchers have chosen to concentrate on in the past, rather, they have looked at the tax system alone and shown why it\u27s unjust and why it needs to change. The studies I have found overlooked the issue of what has gone wrong within the campaigns themselves and focused merely on the validity of the fight and the possible outcomes. This realization leads me to the research question, How should a social justice organization in Washington State conduct a tax justice campaign? This capstone paper attempts to combine the two approaches (focusing on the issue of tax justice and focusing on improving tax campaigns) into one attempt at contributing to a more successful tax campaign in the future, both here in Washington State and beyond. I have done this through analyzing data collected through interviews, document review, focus groups, and surveys. By focusing on the case of Washington this paper includes the opinions of stakeholders within this state and, in addition, stakeholders from around the country who have had experience working on tax justice issues similar to the ones that occur in Washington. In doing so, the paper demonstrates the similarity in opinion of what tax justice is and what one must do to go about creating a more just system in this state and beyond. The findings show that the tax system in Washington is unjust and that there is a disconnect between what needs to be done to change that system and what actually is being done. Finally, this study provides information on the appropriate changes that need to be implemented within tax campaigns in order to be more successful in the future. My findings (gathered from qualitative data and literature review) indicate that the general public is misinformed about the tax system in Washington, as in other states. It also indicates that within groups of stakeholders that are educated on this subject, there is agreement about what should be changed in order to improve on the current tax campaign process