The Tax Revolt of 1923
Legislators in Olympia face a political firestorm as they struggle to cut state spending while voters demand 'hands off' the schools and roads.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
Material reduction in the cost of state government with the hope for reduction in the tax rate will be impossible of accomplishment at this session of the Legislature, observers at Olympia are now saying. The legislators, individually, are for a general slashing of appropriations all down the line, remembering their campaign pledges and the temper of their constituents. But—drastic cuts in school costs, for instance, are merely mentioned when there comes a loud cry: 'Hands off the schools!' Mention of reducing the amounts to be appropriated for building and maintaining roads and bridges causes loud shouts of protest from many other quarters. Faced with the demand that they reduce taxes by reducing expenses, and also faced with violence if they begin slashing appropriations, the legislators are bewildered. Because the people will not stand for curtailment of governmental activities, or interference with their roads and schools, legislative leaders point out, tax reduction through cost reduction is hopeless of accomplishment. If property is to be relieved of its disastrous overload of taxation, then, impartial observers declare that wealth that is now escaping taxation must be forced to bear a portion of the load.
“Faced with the demand that they reduce taxes by reducing expenses, and also faced with violence if they begin slashing appropriations, the legislators are bewildered.”
A century later, Washington state still grapples with the 'disastrous overload' of property taxes and the search for equitable alternatives like income taxes. The tension between popular demand for services and the political impossibility of cutting them remains a foundational struggle in Washington civic life.
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