Con: WA Dem’s Millionaires Tax will grow beyond the wealthy | Opinion

The folks who run Olympia want a personal income tax.

The good news? They say only the rich will pay. The bad news? We know better. These things start small and grow. They always have and they always will. Take the federal income tax. In 1913, only 1% of American households paid the new tax. Today, two out of three do.

Our state’s problems are rooted in the Legislature’s lack of financial discipline. It can’t stop spending. We collect over three times more tax revenue today than we did in 2000, but the majority party wants more. And not a little bit more. A lot more.

Before we impose this new tax (SB 6346/HB 2724), we should ask ourselves: Has the new wave of state spending improved your life? Are things more affordable? Are streets safer? Are schools, roads and health care services better?

Yeah, I don’t think so either.

Backers of the plan say it will shift the state’s tax burden from low- and middle-income workers to wealthy people. But that doesn’t make sense. The new income tax includes a few small tax credits while creating a big new tax. If we want to ease the state’s middle-class tax burden, we should cut property and gas taxes. The taxes everyday people pay.

The middle-class tax cuts being pitched by Democrats (which can be easily rolled back) are budget crumbs. Political fig leaves that will be dwarfed by the new taxes.

Supporters say the proposed income tax will be limited to wealthy people. But promises like that in Olympia have the lifespan of a green banana. Taxes always grow and grow. Both outward and upward.

Why? Because, as Willie Sutton famously said when asked why he robbed banks, “That’s where the money is.” It’s simple math. There are many more working families than wealthy ones. Taxing a lot of people a little almost always generates more money than taxing a few people a lot.

House Republican Leader Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, was right when he recently told the Seattle City Club that the proposed income tax may be on high earners today, but it’s going to hit you and me tomorrow. No promises made today, Stokesbary said, can be trusted.

Doubt me? Gov. Bob Ferguson kicked off 2025 proclaiming his steadfast opposition to more taxes. But just a few months later, he signed into law the largest tax increase in state history.

In 2024, more than 75% of both the Washington House and Senate voted to prohibit any income tax. Now, Democratic leaders have completely flipped. When asked about this sudden change, Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, called the no-income-tax pledge a “Pie-crust promise. Easily made, easily broken.” Such is the power of the pro-tax folks who run the Legislature.

Our best hope is to stop any form of income tax. Stop it now because, if we don’t, our children and their children will experience lifetimes of sky-high taxes. (Unless, of course, they move somewhere else.) The plan on the table is not a slight tax hike; it’s an entirely new tax. If the Legislature passes the measure, we are kicking a budget snowball down a hillside. It’s small now, but it will grow as it rolls.

We also need to remember that Washington state voters have repeatedly rejected plans to overturn Washington’s constitutional prohibition of an income tax. Pro-tax Democrats in Olympia are ignoring this century-old precedent in their quest for more money. That’s the wrong way to do things.

We don’t need more tax revenue; we need more spending discipline. We need to make Washington more affordable for working families by protecting their paychecks, not by finding new ways to tax them.

Jeremie Dufault is a Republican member of the Washington State House of Representatives, representing eastern Yakima County (15th District).

Editor’s Note: This article first appeared in the Seattle Times.