Make tax shifting illegal

HB 1519, in the Washington state legislature, is bad legislation. It addresses tax shift, but only stretches out the impact on taxpayers by imposing the increase in taxes over four years. It should make the shifting of taxes illegal, once and for all.

In 2013, after the Great Wolf decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, the Washington Department of Revenue decreed that improvements on Indian land cannot be taxed. As a result Shelter Bay and Pull & Be Damned were removed from the tax rolls. The Skagit County Assessor shifted the taxes that these areas used to pay to nine ot...