H-1522              _______________________________________________

                                           HOUSE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 4021

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Representatives L. Smith, J. Williams, B. Williams, Beck, Winsley, Amondson, Schoon, S. Wilson, Lewis, Nealey, Bumgarner, Padden, May, Holland, Patrick, Schmidt, Ballard, Walker, McLean, Fuhrman, Silver, Doty, Moyer, D. Sommers, Taylor, Brooks, Betrozoff, Allen, Ferguson, Hankins, Brough, Miller, Barnes, Chandler, Sanders, C. Smith, Prince and P. King

Read first time 2/23/87 and referred to Committee on Ways & Means.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, The Federal Government is a government of limited and enumerated powers and exists only by the mutual consent of the individual sovereign states; and

          WHEREAS, The Bill of Rights provides in the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution that, "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the states, are reserved to the states respectively, or to the people"; and

          WHEREAS, The power of the state to tax and to determine its fiscal policies is inherent in a sovereign state and is one of the most basic powers of government; and

          WHEREAS, The people of the State of Washington by and through their representatives in the state legislature have determined that a retail sales tax bears a fair and rational fiscal relationship to the protections, opportunities, and benefits given by the state to the citizens, residents, and guests of the State of Washington, and have enacted such a retail sales tax and have authorized local governments to do the same; and

          WHEREAS, Congress has enacted the Tax Reform Act of 1986 which specifically repeals for 1987 and later years the itemized deduction for state and local retail sales taxes for federal income tax purposes; and

          WHEREAS, Congress has denied equal protection to the people of the State of Washington by unfairly imposing an oppressive tax burden on them by disallowing the retail sales tax deduction while at the same time arbitrarily favoring other states by allowing a deduction for state and local income taxes; and

          WHEREAS, By such action Congress has capriciously and unreasonably interfered with the right reserved to the State of Washington to carry out its traditional and historical power of taxation in order to support its unique and legitimate governmental functions on behalf of the people; and

          WHEREAS, Such action throws chaos and confusion into the Washington State tax structure, adversely affects a significant source of important state and local revenue, and imposes a substantial hardship upon the citizens of the State of Washington;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that Congress will amend the Tax Reform Act of 1986 to expressly provide for the itemized deduction of state and local retail sales taxes for federal income tax purposes.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington.