Replacing property tax

Voters in British Columbia recently re-elected Premier Gordon Campbell, the driving force behind BC's carbon tax. By 2012, the tax will reach about $30 per ton of carbon dioxide, or about 30 cents per gallon of gasoline. Money from the tax is used to reduce other taxes in a "revenue-neutral tax shift," and voters showed their support by backing Campbell and his right-of-center party for a rare third consecutive term. Across the border, two writers opine in the Seattle Times that Washington State should head in the same direction, replacing or winding down the state's property-based taxes with a carbon tax.

Start by eliminating the state property tax, they write, an idea floated a few years ago by the Washington State Tax Structure Committee chaired by Bill Gates Sr. The tax is unpopular and repealing it would ensure that it goes away for good. Control over property taxes then would be entirely in the hands of local voters in cities and counties, and the total burden on the state's property owners would immediately fall by 25 percent.

What about the state's public schools, which currently receive every dollar raised by the state property tax? That's where the carbon tax comes in. A tax on fossil fuels of $30 per ton of carbon dioxide — the same rate as in British Columbia — would be more than enough to backfill the lost revenue.