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Comment by psunavy03 | Hacker News Reader

There is no state income tax . . . yet. But the "soak the rich" band is already tuning up, and with the cost of living being what it is out here, "rich" will probably include anyone who can afford a house.

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I would not be too worried about that. Washington legislators just outlawed income tax last year. While those who want earned income tax are vocal, the support for the initiative against income tax was so widespread that the politicians did not want it on the ballot for fear of voters being swayed to vote for the other ballot initiatives.

https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2111,_Prohibit...

I wasn't just referring to income tax, but things like capital gains and so forth. The state Supreme Court ruled an excise tax on capital gains was not an income tax, and though the limit is like $250K currently, that could change. And the party that runs Washington is the one that's currently on the warpath about "rich tech bros."

Yes, that (and the LTCi payroll tax) was some nonsense and does bring into question the integrity of the leadership. But the 2111 legislation gives me hope that they aren’t stupid enough to get rid of the states’ most attractive feature for a young, productive workforce.

Especially in a future where young, productive people are going to be in shorter and shorter supply.

They’ve been on that warpath since the glory days of msft and amazon (i.e., for multiple decades at least). All with that same party running things back then in WA. All they’ve accomplished is shooting themselves in the foot here and there, without any meaningful progress.

But note that support of the ballot initiative to repeal the capital gains tax was not widespread. 63% voted to reject it and keep the tax.

There are attempts at it at least once every decade, and every time they get squashed in the very end, even if they are passing the vote and get pretty much to the finish line. Any form of taxing it is against state constitution, and the state struck down any previous attempts at loopholes around that provision of the constitution.

I agree with the sibling comment that this is not something to realistically worry about at all.

> Any form of taxing it is against state constitution

The WA state constitution says non uniform property taxes are not allowed, and 1930 WA Supreme Court ruled income was property.

A flat income tax would have been allowed, until last year when income tax was outlawed, but not with enough votes to amend the state constitution.

I'm confused by this. I live in Michigan and have been paying state income tax ever since my first job.

I think the parent is referring to Washington State, not Michigan.

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