At Kitsap Bank, we work every day with our local small and medium sized businesses who have been realigning their budgets and priorities as a result of the recession.

We’ve worked with borrowers who have fought through, by prioritizing and restructuring their business and their debts, all the while paying a higher Business & Occupation tax bill to help state government through the downturn.

Therefore, we applaud the bipartisan efforts our State Senate has made in producing a budget that honors the spirit of our Washington small businesses and keeps the promise made in 2010 that those higher B&O taxes on small businesses would, in fact, be temporary. It’s not easy to craft such a budget.  It would be easier to keep the tax going once we’ve become accustomed to paying it.

After five full years, the state’s income is back to its peak level. Tax collections for 2013 are basically the same as in 2008 at the height of the boom. It is, therefore, appropriate to bring the B&O tax back to the 2010 levels, as was the original intent.

We are looking forward to this recovery and the return of prosperity to our communities and our state. Giving people confidence in the promises of their government, and giving the middle class and small businesses more of their income to invest in growth and local job creation will create a snowball effect that will drive tax receipts up as economic activity blossoms.

The members of the Senate who have recognized this and crafted a budget accordingly deserve our praise and our support – and we are pleased to be counted among the appreciative local businesses saying, “Thank you” to our Senate for putting politics aside and doing the right thing.

Steven L. Politakis

Chief Executive Officer

Anthony M. George

President and Chief Operating Officer

for Kitsap Bank