If you had asked the conventionally wise a decade ago to put odds on legislative approval of full marriage equality a mere ten years hence, last night's remarkable senate vote would have appeared an unlikely long-shot.

Democrats had been trying and failing for years, simply to add sexual orientation to our state's anti-discrimination laws. Gay marriage? It was a distraction. In fact, more than that, gay marriage was the bogeyman at the bottom of the slippery slope that opponents hyperbolically used to squash public support for civil rights legislation.

And yet, last night, marriage equality leapt over its biggest hurdle, passing the state senate not in a squeaker, but by a decisive 28-21 margin that included four of 22 Republicans. That's about as close to bipartisanship as we get in this state when it comes to social issues.

A lot of activists and politicians played a role in last night's victory, and I don't mean to dis any of their contributions, but a big chunk of the credit goes to Senator Ed Murray, whose disciplined, gradualist strategy—even in the face of harsh criticism from others in the LGBT community who complained that he was moving too slowly—appears flawless in light of the final results. Sure, opponents will still likely gather enough signatures to put the issue before voters as a referendum, but given the way senate fence-sitters toppled over on the side of equality (not to mention the favorable public opinion polls), the odds are that this time next year, our local wedding industry will be booming with new customers.

Happy days, and all that.

But there's another issue that, ten years ago, establishment Dems would've said you were smoking crack if you thought you could move it, and one that honestly, has a helluva a lot more impact on most Washingtonians than whether that nice gay couple next door can legally tie the knot. Of course, I'm talking about tax restructuring: Moving Washington from the most regressive and most sales-tax dependent state in the nation, towards one that begins to tax income and/or wealth in a fair and sustainable manner.

Without tax restructuring, not only will Washington's lowest income households continue to shoulder a disproportionate share of our state and local taxes (currently 17.3 percent of income for those earning less than $20,000 a year, compared to only 2.6 percent for those earning over $537,000), state tax revenues—and thus its ability to provide services—will continue to shrink as a portion of the total economy. That means lower quality K-12 schools and public universities, fewer services for the poor, the old, and the sick, not mention less money for prisons, police, roads, ferries, parks, and a host of other essential state services.

Elect all the Dems you want, but without tax restructuring, we will gradually get the Republican drown-government-in-a-bathtub agenda by default.

By nearly every metric (except perhaps the fantastical math Republican Rob McKenna uses in his gubernatorial stump speeches), Washington's state government is shrinking, because we have a tax structure that simply cannot produce revenue that keeps pace with either growth in the economy or growth in demand for government services. Hell, with inflation-adjusted revenue shrinking per capita, we can't even keep pace with the economically bogus right-wing target of population plus inflation.

And yet, the political elite will tell you that the only long term solution to our structural revenue deficit—substantive tax restructuring— is politically impossible. You know, just like gay marriage was a decade ago.

But of course, nothing's impossible. If we can overcome seemingly insurmountable political odds to become only the seventh state to recognize gay marriage, surely we can do the same to become the 44th state to levy some sort of income tax. All that's missing in Olympia is the leadership and the plan. And, unfortunately, the will.