Echoing her refrain from last year's budget cuts, Gov. Chris Gregoire said this morning that she "hates" her budget proposal this year, which would eliminate school buses, increase class sizes, eliminate the basic health plan for low-income people, and cut funding to colleges and universities. However, Gregoire did not identify a single tax loophole she felt should be eliminated, noting that all tax loopholes "have constituencies" and that getting rid of some loopholes could mean "cutting jobs."

Well, Gregoire's in luck. Over at Sightline, Eric de Place has identified a way to knock out one-fifth of the budget shortfall---$344 million---by closing a single tax loophole. Even better, closing the loophole would provide $106 million in tax revenue to local governments, which are facing revenue shortfalls of their own.

The loophole: A sales tax exemption on trade-ins to car dealerships. Currently, if you trade your used car for a new one, you only pay sales tax on the value of the new car minus the value of the trade-in. In contrast, if you sell your old car without buying a new one, you pay sales tax on the full value of the used vehicle. Essentially, it's a giveaway to car dealerships. It also benefits wealthier drivers with high-priced cars they trade in frequently over low-income people who are less likely to drive, and more likely to own older cars that they maintain (instead of trading them in) if they do.

De Place concludes with this "closing note":

If I hear one person—just one person—tell me that closing this tax loophole isn’t “politically possible” or “is too heavy a lift” for this session, I’m officially going to blow my stack. You know what’s too heavy a lift? Cutting low income people off from health care, dismantling the public education system that the middle class relies on, slashing environmental protections, and all the other stuff that the legislature has been hacking away at over the last couple of years. It’s about time we share the pain with car dealerships.