The Seattle Times: WA’s Income Tax is a ‘Trojan Horse’ Designed to be Expanded

With ballots dropping this week, there is one question that has been top of mind for the Seattle Times: will Olympia expand this income tax beyond the wealthy? The paper reported Sunday that some prominent Democrats “haven’t stuck to the script” and that polls show support erodes once voters believe they will eventually have to pay it too. A column posted today answers the question more directly:

“Yes, the ‘millionaires tax’ is a ‘Trojan horse’ — except it’s no secret”

Supporters of the income tax have been trying to assure voters for months that it will only apply to the very wealthy and no one else. Yet lawmakers in Olympia are singing a very different tune:

Union-funded campaign ads against I-645 emphasize “millionaires and billionaires” who’d get a “tax break” if the initiative scuttles the tax from being collected starting in 2029.

But some prominent Democrats haven’t stuck to the script.

They’ve talked — openly and behind the scenes — about eventually broadening who pays the income tax as part of a wider tax reform.

During a recent debate, state Rep. Cindy Ryu, D-Shoreline, said she supports expanding the tax to households with incomes as low as $250,000 — albeit at a lower rate than the 9.9% that applies to millionaires.

By their own admission, lawmakers who supported the tax are now calling for households with two earners making $125,000 to be subject to an income tax.

In his latest column, Daniel Westneat asks whether the tax is a “Trojan horse” for something broader, then answers:

The big debate raging about our state’s new “millionaires” income tax is whether it’s a “Trojan horse” for something else.

The answer is pretty simple: Yes. It is.

The Democrats have been pretty open about their goals.

The column adds that there is nothing in the law requiringes a vote before the threshold changes, and the column is plain about how the tax is built:

The tax makes the most sense as a foot in the door for a broader system. It isn’t likely to be sustained for long just as it is.

The Times’ news story over the weekend lays out how deliberate lawmakers were in ensuring this tax could be expanded to everyone.

During their marathon debate on the “millionaires tax” in March, Democrats rejected amendments that sought to enshrine its income limits in the state constitution.

Gov. Bob Ferguson has pledged to veto any attempt to lower the threshold. But a pledge is not a law, and lawmakers had the chance to put the limit in writing and chose not to.

The Times also points out that the tax also cut longstanding public employees’ pension protections, exposing the retirement checks of teachers, firefighters, police officers, and other public workers.

But supporters of I-645 are also flagging other provisions of the new law, which stripped out tax exemptions for public pensions.

While the change has no immediate practical effect — no one is getting $1 million public pensions — [Steve] Gordon argued it’s evidence that lawmakers are clearing the way for lower income brackets to eventually get swept up in the tax.

The Times is right that no one collects a public pension at that income level. That is the point. If this tax were only ever meant for the very wealthy, why remove protections for the retirement checks of teachers, firefighters, and police officers? By erasing these protections, lawmakers made it clear that their intention is to expand this tax to all income levels.

Don’t trust what they say. Trust what they’ve done. Vote YES on I-645.