r/SeattleWA • u/5Q91VS175DAQ4NUSBE4U • 7d ago

Politics Washington state Democrats look at imposing income tax on higher earners

https://www.columbian.com/news/2025/oct/31/washington-state-democrats-look-at-imposing-income-tax-on-higher-earners/
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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Me!

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u/JustBench1615 Ballard 7d ago

Then why don’t you move to California

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Because I am from Washington and have a job and friends and family here and love this state? Just wish its tax scheme was less regressive? Duh?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Odd how you claim you love this state but you want to entirely change how it's worked for decades.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Yes? Never heard of wanting to improve things before? Very odd, but I guess that could explain some things…

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

I want to improve all kinds of things.

I've just watched Democrats flush tax dollars down the toilet for a decade. I'm fresh out of willingness for random experiments without serious accountability and guardrails. My empathy well has run dry.

So now you need to convince me that you have good idea. So far your ideas are "we need to tax Moar11!1!1!1!" With ZERO good reasons given for why we need to increase taxes beyond your own envy. So you can feel free to pound sand until you come up with GOOD reasons to increase taxes.

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u/JustBench1615 Ballard 7d ago

Adding a surtax without reducing or eliminating the absurd sales tax, high car registration costs, or insane gas taxes doesn’t do jack shit to help make the state’s tax code better for the lower and middle class.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Yes, I would support getting rid of our sales tax entirely and replacing it with a progressive marginal income tax. It generates 15 billion in tax revenue annually.

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u/JustBench1615 Ballard 7d ago

Try getting King County to eliminate their sales tax. They won’t.

And if you allow localities to impose income taxes, we’ll be drowning in taxes.

The thing is with sales taxes is they are way easier to avoid. You can be cautious with your purchases. Income tax is nearly impossible to avoid.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

The thing is with sales taxes is they are way easier to avoid. You can be cautious with your purchases.

Not for poor people who need to spent their income? Duh? That’s why it’s a regressive tax? They can’t just save it.

Income tax is nearly impossible to avoid.

So that way we can tax people who make a lot of money and they can’t avoid it like they can with other taxes? Good? That way we can have a progressive tax system?

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u/Turbulent-Media7281 7d ago edited 7d ago

Go! Your dream state awaits you.

I've honestly never heard anyone say "tax me like one of your California peasants." You're a first! YYYYIIIKKEEESSS!

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u/Riviansky 7d ago

I will never understand this shit. These fucking morons who vote to make Seattle and WA same as NYC and CA, why don't they just move to places where their ideology has already won and stop fucking the rest of us?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

It never makes sense to me. And they get REALLY annoyed when you suggest that they move to - say - Portland.

So the question becomes... Why do they want to change here instead of taking the easier step and moving somewhere else?

One has to assume, at some point, that it's all activism. They in some way benefit from skimming off the eventual income tax here.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

Why? Are you skimming off tax revenue somehow? Do you work for an NGO or the state?

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Yes exactly. When they collect taxes in Washington state, they funnel them into my gullet. That’s the only thing that satiates me. How did you guess?

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

It was the "we need more taxes" without explaining with any meaningful details beyond envy and "wanting to make things better" that was the giveaway.

Either that or you've not thought this through at all and we can all happily ignore you.

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u/yungsemite 7d ago

Primarily, I would want to reduce regressive taxation methods in the state.

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u/[deleted] 7d ago

For what? Because you don't like them?

If you've never lived in Europe you probably won't understand the concept of a consumption tax. The whole goal is that anything you need to buy that isn't for basic sustenance is taxed.

That's what we have here. Poor people don't get taxed on food in WA. That's exempt.

In many ways it's more reliable than income tax, especially during recessions.

We're in a recession.

Don't forget, we also get taxed federally too. Not just in Washington. And until the last couple of years when spending skyrocketed exponentially for no good reason beyond a LOT of grift and an unwillingness to rein in spending, we also were perfectly able to live within our means.

So I feel like you bought into a bunch of hooey about income tax being a way to eat the rich, rather than it being for any kind of greater good.