The Washington Tax System—How It Grew

Since the establishment of Washington as a territory in 1854, the state\u27s taxing system has expanded from a simple two-tax program, adequately serving the needs of its rough pioneer communities, into an involved complex of multiple taxes, limited and confined either within a rigid and strictly construed constitutional framework or by the outer limits of economic and political feasibility. Whatever may be one\u27s belief with respect to the desirable extent of the governmental activities and services of the state and its many subdivisions, there can be no denying the proposition that the state\u27s existing revenue system creaks, groans, and mightily strains at the task of providing the funds necessary to maintain the level of governmental activity which citizens and organized groups require their representatives to maintain in the complex of urban, suburban, and rural communities of the state