S-2245               _______________________________________________

                                 SUBSTITUTE SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 8012

                        _______________________________________________

State of Washington                              50th Legislature                              1987 Regular Session

By Senate Committee on Commerce & Labor (originally sponsored by Senators West, Stratton, Warnke and McCaslin)

Read first time 3/6/87.

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, AND TO THE DIRECTOR OF THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE:

          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, Thousands of employees of common carriers travel across state lines in the regular course of their daily employment; and

          WHEREAS, These employees who are not residents of these states impose no tax burden on the states through which they travel; and

          WHEREAS, The employers of these nonresidents are common carriers which pay a substantial share of state and local taxes in the states in which they operate, such as fuel taxes and registration fees, and various other excise and property taxes, to cover the cost of governmental services from which they benefit while present in the state; and

          WHEREAS, It is patently inequitable for one state to tax another state's residents for purported benefits received from governmental services when the nonresidents taxed are neither living, nor working to any substantial degree, in the taxing state; and

          WHEREAS, Current federal law allows withholding of state income tax by common carriers from their employees' wages if more than fifty percent of the distance traveled by the employee is within a state other than the employee's state of residence; and

          WHEREAS, In imposing state income taxes, these states are taxing nonresidents who as such have no vote or voice in the imposition of the tax or its rate, and receive no benefit from the expenditure of their tax money; and

          WHEREAS, The fact that current federal law allows this taxation without representation does not make the collection of such taxes from these nonresident employees equitable; and

          WHEREAS, Taxing nonresidents while traveling through another state raises questions regarding the exclusive power of Congress to regulate interstate commerce and the ensuing right to travel freely as expressed in Article I, section 8 of the Constitution of the United States;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the United States Congress change federal law to ensure more fair treatment of employees of common carriers who cross state lines.

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