The state of Washington is hoping to put an even larger portion of the burden of its spending on millionaires with a proposal for a 9.9% tax on the highest earners. But that’s casting a chill over places like Seattle, where businesses that service wealthy customers are already seeing them get cold feet. Hana Kim of Fox 13 reports:
Unintended consequences from tax policies don’t stay at the top—they cascade fast, according to a local small business in Seattle.
Mark Elster, owner of Seattle-based firm AOME Architects says as Washington lawmakers push forward with the “millionaires tax,” he and others are drafting a formal letter to Governor Ferguson.
Their message? The mere anticipation of the tax is creating an economic “chill,” driving high-net-worth clients to pull the plug on major projects before they even break ground.
The backstory:
If the millionaires tax survives the ballot this November, the 9.9% tax on any household or individual making more than a million will be collected starting 2029.
Action Line: Wealthy Americans don’t sit on their money in a cave like storybook dragons. They spend it, they invest it, they put it in the bank where it is lent to businesses and homebuyers. They put that lazy cash to work. Punishing them by taking that money and giving it to the government, where it won’t do much at all, is a punishment for everyone else too. When you want to talk about putting your lazy cash to work, email me at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com. And click here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter.
