The level of dishonesty regarding the initiative to roll back the millionaires’ tax passed by our Democratic Legislature is mind-boggling.
You aren’t being told that it applies only to those who earn over $1 million per year. They aren’t telling you that, like all other states, this state is making do with less because of the mess made in Washington, D.C.
The mess in D.C. is a series of abject failures rolled up in poorly thought out policy and intentions (implementing an illegal agenda called Project 2025). The government should be responsive to all of us, not just the billionaires and large corporations.
The Washington state Legislature is acting responsibly.
The Washington state law taxing millionaires hasn’t gone into effect yet. When it does, it does some rather responsible things:
1. It will eliminate or reduce the business and occupation tax for 75% of small businesses in the state and double the filing threshold to $250,000, so smaller shops owe nothing.
That is good for small businesses. Prior to the enactment and passage of the income tax on millionaires, primarily businesses kept the state afloat through the business and occupations tax.
2. It will repeal the new sales taxes on services (software, IT, staffing) from last October. This eliminates the taxes you pay when you need these services.
3. It will expand the Working Families Tax Credit for 460,000 families, who get a check between $300 and $1,300. So more Washington families will qualify.
I don’t know about you, but every penny counts now. Because of the lies from D.C., there are no jobs, no new jobs being created, and this state, otherwise primarily dependent on businesses doing well, is taking a hit in the purse.
The Republicans solely passed what is known as the “One Big Beautiful Bill” (OBBA), signed on July 4, 2025, that swept in tax cuts for the wealthy and cut social safety nets for you. The OBBA cut $1 trillion from Medicaid and nearly $600 billion from Medicare. This doesn’t include the Republican cuts to food programs such as SNAP (which also reduce farmers’ income or potential income).
The wealth divide continues to grow while the authoritarian tendency at work doubles the revenue of ICE-contracted private facilities. Forced austerity for you because of OBBA, which then takes the money from you and gives it to private detention facilities (as government contracts).
What are they planning?
Republicans really know how to spend our tax dollars wisely. That is a joke.
For all these reasons, I would not vote for John Braun. Braun Northwest Inc. labels itself as a small business with an average annual income of $30 million to obtain small-business preference in government contracts.
Would that be placed in a blind trust, or would it decline new government contracts if Braun should win?
Helen Nowlin
Glenoma
