Washington’s proposed 9.9% “millionaire tax” is being marketed as a tax on the wealthy, but the truth is far more consequential and insidious for every resident, including retirees whose income would also be taxed.
Under Washington’s Constitution, the same rate must apply to everyone. Once that adjustment is made, the tax becomes constitutional, permanent and effectively unchallengeable.
Washington’s Constitution treats income as property. Property taxes must be the same for everyone by law. A tax that applies only to millionaires is, by definition, non‑uniform. It’s discriminatory and therefore unconstitutional. The Washington Supreme Court has reaffirmed this principle for nearly a century. The legal precedent is not vague. It is not theoretical. It is settled.
Politicians know a millionaire tax won’t survive constitutional challenge. It will be struck down. What they never say is the moment it is struck down, they can “fix” it by applying the tax to everyone. Fixing a tax or law already passed is easy because no one is paying attention. The millionaire framing is political subterfuge.
Once an income‑tax mechanism exists, even temporarily, the infrastructure is in place. Expanding it becomes easy. That’s why lawmakers are also trying to do away with the citizen initiative process, but that’s another story. Lawmakers can lower monetary thresholds, add brackets, redefine income or apply the tax uniformly to all residents all without voter approval. The people have no direct say. The Legislature can do it with a simple majority, which they already have.
This is why the average worker must pay attention. The millionaire tax is not the end goal — it is the opening salvo in establishing a statewide income tax that can be expanded at will. Once the system exists, the average worker becomes the real target, not the millionaire.
Meanwhile, Washington already imposes payroll taxes like WA Cares, deducted automatically from every paycheck. Payroll taxes are easy for governments to raise because they are invisible. They disappear before you are paid. Workers rarely notice until their take‑home pay really begins to shrink, then they blame the economy and Trump.
Voters deserve honesty. The millionaire tax is unconstitutional. The only way it survives is by becoming a tax on everyone. Once that door is open, it will never close.
Last week, state Sen. Jamie Pedersen, the Democrats’ majority leader, told KUOW’s Sound Politics that reversing their Initiative 2111 from 2024 decision to ban income taxes wouldn’t be hard.
“That was — what did Mary Poppins call that? — a ‘pie crust promise.’ Easily made, easily broken. We put that language into statute, and we can amend it any time we want to,” Pedersen said. “I wouldn’t take that super-seriously.”
The pattern is unmistakable: Create a new tax category. Claim it affects only the wealthy. Allow it to be struck down. Quietly “fix” it by applying it to everyone. Raise it incrementally without voter approval.
Always the same — Democrats poison the well, blame someone else and claim they have the antidote.
Ray Anderon
Ethel
