While state revenue is looking a little bit better than it did during the bottom of the Great Recession, it could be rising a lot faster. As Schmudget points out:

As Washington state tax revenues continue their slow rebound from the Great Recession, profits from the sale of corporate stocks are breaching all-time highs. But unlike most other states, Washington doesn’t get a share of that windfall, which largely benefits wealthy investors. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which breached 16,000 for the first time ever earlier this month, has grown 126 percent since February 2009. Washingtonians could benefit greatly from the surging stock market if the state would tax those capital gains, as 42 other states do.

If Washington State placed just a one-percent tax on capital gains from large stock sales, it could bring in $100 million annually, skimming a little bit off the proceeds enjoyed by wealthy investors in this state and redirecting it toward public services.