Democrat politicians, especially in far-left cities like Seattle, view people as members of three different groups. There are the ATMs, the combination of mega-donors and wealthy residents who can supply Democrat politicians with campaign funds, tax dollars for leftist policies, or both. Then, there are the enemies, middle class voters who lean right, who are being increasingly targeted for removal from public discourse. Last but not least, there are the useful idiots who vote for Democrats and therefore vote for their own suffering.
That’s why the “millionaire’s tax” in Washington is pure perfection from a leftist perspective. It addresses all three groups of people in the state in ways that Democrats want. And it’s going to be the downfall of a city and state that once boasted prosperity as a feature.
They Always Come For the Little Guy Next
There’s a trick as old as tax collectors themselves, and the left has never gotten tired of pulling it. You pick a number that sounds safely distant from most people — a million dollars — slap the word “millionaires” on the bill, and dare anyone to object. Who’s going to stand up for the rich guy? It’s genius, in a cynical sort of way.
Washington state just fell for it again. Governor Bob Ferguson signed the state’s first-ever income tax this past March — a 9.9% hit on households earning above $1 million annually. Progressives are popping champagne. Small business owners are reading the fine print and going pale.
Matt Humphrey runs a barbershop in Seattle’s Ballard neighborhood. He’s not pulling in seven figures. But he sees exactly where this train is headed. He already pays a state B&O tax, a city B&O tax, sales tax, and property tax on equipment he purchased with after-tax dollars. Seattle’s combined sales tax rate — 10.35% — is among the highest in the nation. And now a socialist mayor is openly floating additional taxes on “big business and the wealthy” to close a $140 million budget gap. When you’re a small employer in this environment, you start to feel less like a business owner and more like a walking revenue stream.
“I’m next,” Humphrey said plainly. “I don’t make a million dollars a year for sure, but I’m in line.”
He’s right to worry. The Wall Street Journal editorial board called the new millionaires tax a “con” that will “inevitably capture the middle class.” That’s not partisan hyperbole — it’s just history. Income taxes, once enacted, do not shrink. They expand, the threshold drops, and people who never thought the law applied to them suddenly find it does.
The economic signals coming out of Seattle aren’t subtle. Amazon is vacating a downtown office it occupied for 12 years and growing its footprint across the lake in Bellevue — a quieter, less taxed city. Starbucks is closing more Seattle locations and has opened a secondary headquarters in Tennessee. Former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced his move to Florida the same day the legislature approved the income tax. Make of that timing what you will.
Steve Gordon, who runs a truck dealership in Pacific, Washington, put it simply: the people with options are leaving, and the people without options are watching the customers disappear.
The state’s Democrat socialist defenders insist the math is straightforward — those with more should pay more. And they’re not entirely wrong that taxing wealth is politically popular. But popularity is not the same as wisdom, and arithmetic is not the same as economics. Vijay Boyapati, a former Google engineer who moved to Seattle from California specifically to escape high taxes, points out that state education spending has nearly doubled over the past decade while 8th grade math proficiency has collapsed to roughly 30%. More money did not fix the problem. It rarely does.
Washington’s Evergreen State nickname has started to feel ironic. What’s evergreen in Seattle right now is the appetite for revenue — and the list of people they’re willing to take it from keeps getting longer.
The barber saw it coming. Most people don’t until it’s their chair on the chopping block.
