“Tax The Rich” Is Gaining Steam in Washington State

You know that one person in your life who is best described as, "give an inch, take a mile?" You meet them for lunch and before you know it they're borrowing your truck to move all their stuff into your basement! Well, politicians are like that with other people's money. It appears our elected reps in Olympia believe they've gotten that first inch, and are now giving the mile a real hard look.

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Here are Five Fast Facts on the millionaire income tax:

1. ⛔ Hard Pass (So Far) - Washington State residents have remained adamant that they don't want an income tax...until now. But last year's capital gains tax passed easily with bipartisan voter support. So apparently, slapping an income tax on the rich is cool: go for it, bro!

2. 🤷 Not My Problem - The grumblings are probably due to the almost 30k millionaires in the state (up from 12k in 2017) which are less than 0.5% of the population but making 15-25% of all income in the state. Without income taxes…that’s a fair point.

3. 👀 Going For The Mile - Given the current budget shortages plus the ease of the capital gains tax passing last year, Gov. Ferguson is now talking about an income tax on millionaires to generate over $3 billion annually.

4. 🤦 Still Not Enough - The really fun part is that if this new income tax is passed this year, the money wouldn't land until 2029, so that wouldn't fix the $2.3 billion budget hole right now. So they'd still need to raid the state's rainy day fund. Pray for sunshine…

5. 😣 Wait, That’s For Real? - Along with the new tax and raiding the rainy day fund, Gov. Ferguson is also proposing - wait for it - another $1 billion in new spending. Because of course he is.

🔥Bottom line: Roll with us for a second here. Not only do we have the previous concerns about millionaires leaving because they're taxed out the wazoo, but once there's an income tax on millionaires, what happens the next time there's a budget crisis? What's stopping Olympia from invoking a "budget emergency" and nudging that $1M line down just a wee bit? Or maybe a lot? This is the definition of a slippery slope, folks, and a lot of normal folks are not going to like where it ends up.

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The problem is not Trump or tariffs or a lack of revenue. The problem is a severe addiction to overspending, as this demonstrates in spades!

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