All in good humor here, but my state has now decided to redistribute all of the wealth…….to Florida and Texas apparently. I suppose this is a very good thing if you actually live in Florida or Texas. Those of us who live in this state are now waving goodbye to any potential wealth that might have afflicted us. On the bright side, the poverty, despair, addiction, and lack of housing will remain behind for nostalgia’s sake…..

I speak of the new Washington state, “millionaires tax.” This is a state income tax on people making a million dollars. On the surface this sounds kind of cool, let’s just tax the rich and fund the poor! There’s a couple of issues right out of the gate. We have a state Constitution that demands no income taxes. We voted against it over the years, at least 11 times. This current “millionaires tax” actually broke a record with the most number of people in our state history registering their disapproval directly with our legislature.

It has an 85% disapproval rate. Most of us disapproving are not millionaires. We are actually “the poor” who have been here and done this, saw this game play out a dozen times already, and would prefer to just stop suffering. This state already has a, “tax on the wealthy,” it’s a 1.51 a gallon gas tax. It’s a 10% sales tax. It cost 40 bucks to enter a state park. In many counties car tabs will now exceed the value of your car. All of these regressive taxes put a punitive and unfair burden on “the poor” and every last one of them was presented as much needed “tax on the wealthy” to help to feed poor kindergarten children.

By the way, having gas well over five bucks a gallon because of excessive state taxes, actually drives up the cost of everything else, energy, housing, goods, and services.

I almost fell over when the Governor once again proclaimed the, “millionaire’s tax” was now needed in order to …..feed hungry kindergarten children. I’m starting to wonder how much these kids eat and why they never grow up? We’ve been feeding these hungry children for a good 40 years now. I think it’s time for them to go out and get a job!

Millionaires already pay income taxes, about 30 percent. This is an additional state income tax of 9.9%. Doesn’t sound like much, but it means a family mom and pop grocery store could have to fork over an additional 100,000 to the state. That exceeds many people’s profit margins. There’s also a marriage penalty, so that million is not for each person. So now if you’re married, it’s actually more of a tax on 500,000.

Our legislature actually shot down a couple of amendments that would have banned it from eventually becoming a state income tax on 50,000. That’s the problem, as the wealthy move onto better weather and more favorable taxes, the state gov will notice it’s losing money and need to shift the burden downwards. They always do. It’s downright predictable. Somebody has to make up for their shortfalls.

Here’s something a lot of people don’t understand, raising taxes does not necessarily raise revenue. In fact, many experts have predicted this tax will actually wind up costing this state -14 billion. See, millionaires have two ways to avoid these taxes, stop making money and just enjoy the millions they’ve already earned, or move their business to another state.

Jeff Bezos, the Amazon guy, has now moved to Miami.  Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz and his wife have announced they’ve now moved to Florida. Our former Governor was looking at Idaho. The Seahawks who just won the Superbowl, are also now up for sale. Microsoft, Amazon, Starbucks, Boeing, all the big businesses this state was once known for are definitely feeling a bit uh, wobbly.

When business flees, so too do jobs. Housing. Restaurants. The amount of taxes you are able to collect starts to decline dramatically as the economy plummets.

Anyway, I’ve been doing poverty in this dystopian nightmare I call the 9th circuit of hell for decades now, so I take it all with a grain of salt. Pretty sure the courts are going to knock it down eventually but on the other hand, that’s why I call it, “the 9th circuit of hell.” Justice and following the law have never been high on their list of priorities.