Washington Gov. Jay Inslee is defending his call for higher taxes in 2015. The Democrat reacted Thursday to criticism from Republican lawmakers.
Washington Republicans said higher taxes should be a last resort and accused Inslee of making taxes his default position.
Inslee laughed off the criticism at a legislative forum sponsored by the Associated Press.
“Well, it’s wrong,” he said. “It’s not true to start with.”
Inslee said he came to the conclusion that higher taxes are needed after modeling 15 percent across-the-board cuts, scrubbing the budget for savings and efficiencies and working to keep health care inflation in check.
“And when you do the math, you have to generate additional revenue,” Inslee said.
In December, Inslee unveiled a $1.4 billion proposed tax package that includes new taxes on capital gains and industrial carbon emissions, also an increase in the cigarette tax and the elimination of several tax exemptions.
