Oregon Public Broadcasting

Washington Governor Chris Gregoire is reiterating her opposition to an income tax. The comments come in response to proposals by key Senate Democrats to impose an income tax on high-wage earners.

But as Olympia correspondent Austin Jenkins reports, the real question is whether it would require a constitutional amendment.

Conventional wisdom says yes: an income tax in Washington can only happen if you change the state constitution with a two-thirds vote of the legislature and a vote of the people.

But attorney Hugh Spitzer, an expert on taxes and the state constitution, says there’s another option that would not require a super-majority vote in the legislature.

Hugh Spitzer: “By a majority vote of each house a statute establishing some kind of income tax could go to the people and if the people approve it, it is likely to be challenged in court and then it would take a while longer for the court to decide whether or not it was consistent with the state constitution.”

In the 1930s a divided Washington Supreme Court threw out a voter-approved income tax -- viewing it as an illegal property tax. But Spitzer says the case law has changed a lot since then and he -- for one -- thinks an income tax could withstand an inevitable present-day court challenge.