A possible reason why liquor and motor fuel companies are exempt from business tax in HB 2907
HB 2948’s title is “Granting additional and progressive tax authority for counties with populations exceeding two million and cities therein to impose an excise tax on businesses that addresses the affordable housing crisis and reduces homelessness through evidence-based practices that will save lives and improve public safety, while also ensuring certainty and predictability for businesses.” Its tax rate is 0.25%, higher than the 0.2% of HB 2907.
HB 2907 (2019-2020, “Authorizing counties with populations over two million to impose an excise tax on business.”) exempts manufacturers of motor fuel and of liquor from the business tax. At the town hall on Feb 22, the 42st LD legislators said they don’t know why and would look into it.
Looking at the Washington State Public Disclosure Commission‘s record of contributions, here’s a possible reason why. The beverage industry and the oil/fuel industry have each given hundreds of thousands of dollars to legislators since 2007. I downloaded the data and here’s the result of some queries:
MariaDB [contributions]> select CONTRIBUTOR_NAME,count(1),sum(amount) as AMOUNT from contrib where LEGISLATIVE_DISTRICT <> '' AND (CONTRIBUTOR_NAME like '%LIQUOR%' OR CONTRIBUTOR_NAME like '%BEVERAGE%') group BY 1 ORDER BY 3 DESC limit 25; +------------------------------------------------------------+----------+--------+ | CONTRIBUTOR_NAME | count(1) | AMOUNT | +------------------------------------------------------------+----------+--------+ | WA BEVERAGE ASSN | 305 | 231900 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSN PAC | 232 | 178000 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION | 145 | 121600 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION PAC | 93 | 74550 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION PAC | 47 | 40450 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION | 19 | 17400 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION POLITICAL ACTION COMMITTEE | 8 | 6950 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSOC PAC | 6 | 5900 | | MARINE VIEW BEVERAGE | 8 | 5400 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION - PAC | 6 | 4700 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSOC. PAC | 4 | 4000 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOC PAC | 4 | 3950 | | WASH. BEVERAGE ASSOC. PAC | 5 | 3950 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSOCIATIONS | 5 | 3900 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSN | 4 | 3400 | | WA BEVERAGE ASSOC | 3 | 2950 | | MARINE VIEW BEVERAGE - POULSBO | 6 | 2900 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOC. PAC | 3 | 2900 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATIO | 3 | 2850 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION | 4 | 2850 | | MARINE VIEW BEVERAGE-POULSBO | 4 | 2700 | | MARINE VIEW BEVERAGE-SUMNER | 3 | 2600 | | IDAHO BEVERAGES INC | 4 | 2600 | | WASINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION | 2 | 2000 | | WASHINGTON BEVERAGE ASSOCIATION, PAC | 2 | 2000 | +------------------------------------------------------------+----------+--------+ 25 rows in set (1.61 sec) MariaDB [contributions]> select CONTRIBUTOR_NAME,count(1),sum(amount) as AMOUNT from contrib where LEGISLATIVE_DISTRICT <> '' AND (CONTRIBUTOR_NAME like '%FUEL%' OR CONTRIBUTOR_NAME like '%OIL%') group BY 1 ORDER BY 3 DESC limit 25; +--------------------------------------+----------+--------+ | CONTRIBUTOR_NAME | count(1) | AMOUNT | +--------------------------------------+----------+--------+ | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSOC PAC | 129 | 53750 | | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSN | 80 | 34650 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKETERS ASSOCIATION | 41 | 25400 | | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSOC | 26 | 13900 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKETERS ASSOC. | 18 | 11400 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKETERS ASSOC | 12 | 6200 | | PACIFIC FUEL TRANSPORT INC | 11 | 4475 | | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSOC. | 11 | 3000 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKERTERS ASSOC | 2 | 2000 | | ARLINGTON FUEL STOP | 2 | 1900 | | ARLINGTON FUEL STOP INC | 2 | 1600 | | CONNELL OIL CO | 2 | 1600 | | VANCOUVER OIL CO | 4 | 1500 | | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSN. | 4 | 1350 | | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSOCIATION | 6 | 1350 | | BALLARD OIL CO. | 3 | 1300 | | BALLARD OIL CO | 3 | 1200 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKETERS ASS'N | 1 | 1000 | | TOPSOILS NORTHWEST, INC. | 1 | 1000 | | O'COILEAIN PROINSIAS | 2 | 1000 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKETERS ASSN | 1 | 1000 | | TOILLION BRUCE | 1 | 1000 | | LOW CARBON FUELS COALITION | 1 | 997 | | WA OIL MARKETERS ASSN PAC | 1 | 675 | | WASHINGTON OIL MARKETERS ASSOCIATIO | 3 | 650 | +--------------------------------------+----------+--------+ 25 rows in set (1.59 sec)
The conditions “LEGISLATIVE_DISTRICT <> ”” assure that donations for ballot initiatives are excluded.