I don’t know quite when it happened, but some time in the last decade or so Seattle decided it was losing too much ground to Portland, Oregon, in the Crazy Liberal Weirdness Department. Sure, Seattle brought us grunge rock (music to invade Poland by, as someone once put it) and the 2000 WTO protests that were the early prototype of today’s “antifa resistance.” But Portland got the TV show!
We’ve already noted the perverse results of Seattle’s minimum wage hike, but now the neo-socialist city council has decided to extend its craziness by imposing a city income tax on high income residents of the city:
SEATTLE — Seattle’s wealthiest would become the only Washington state residents to pay an income tax under legislation approved by the City Council, a measure designed as much to raise revenue as to open a broader discussion about whether the wealthy pay their fair share.
The council voted unanimously Monday to impose a 2.25 percent tax on the city’s highest earners. Personal income in excess of $250,000 for individuals and in excess of $500,000 for married couples filing joint returns would be taxed.
Washington state does not have a state income tax, and there’s some legal question about whether Seattle can institute an income tax. I suppose one way to make Seattle housing more affordable is to cause its wealthier residents to move out of the city limits to Bellevue, Renton, etc.
If the tax goes into effect, we’ll be back with follow-up stories about how the new tax “unexpectedly” is failing to bring in the predicted revenue. Which will be inevitably followed by raising the rate. Rinse and repeat until you become Detroit.
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