Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
New income tax can't be used for 10 years
Edmund Schweitzer
PULLMAN — Schweitzer Engineering Laboratories (SEL) President Edmund Schweitzer is working in opposition to the state's new long-term care income tax.
The Long-Term Care Trust Act was signed by Gov. Jay Inslee into law in 2019. It begins in January of 2022.
The new income tax is 0.58% drawn from workers' payrolls. The more someone makes, the more they pay. For people making $100,000, they pay $580 annually.
The money is held to pay for long-term care toward the end of people's lives. A person can draw $100 a day or up to $36,500 per year after paying for 10 years. To opt-out, employees need a personal long-term care insurance policy by Nov. 1.
"I again implore you to use your executive authority to stop this misguided, unfair, and unjust tax," Schweitzer wrote Inslee in a second letter on Aug. 11.
The Pullman-based company held 12 educational sessions for more than 600 employee-owners and from the 400 responding in writing about the income tax, "all 400 responses were negative."
"Just to clarify since I live in Idaho, I am paying about $500 a year for something I cannot use since I am not a resident of Washington?" asked one employee.
Many SEL employees live in Idaho and work in Washington. Under the new income tax, the money will be taken from them but they can't access it later because they are not Washington state residents.
"As of today, 983 Idaho SEL employee-owners work in Washington. Many of them want to work for SEL in Idaho. Your tax is one more reason," Schweitzer wrote Inslee.
Schweitzer is publicly campaigning to pressure Inslee to use his executive powers to stop the tax.
"Understanding and responding to your law, with its sudden deadlines, indefinite rules, few choices to opt-out, and other unfairness, is distracting us from our 'day jobs.' ... one more tax," he wrote.
Bill Stevenson is the former editor of the Whitman County Gazette, Colfax Daily Bulletin and Franklin Connection. He has nearly 30 years of journalism experience covering news in Eastern Washington.
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