Washington Dems passed an income tax they know is unconstitutional.That was the point

Washington Gov.Bob Ferguson speaks at a podium in Seattle.(Alexi Rosenfeld/Getty Images)

Democrat New York Gov.Kathy Hochulhas repeatedly refused to go along, explaining at an event, “I don’t want to lose any more people to Palm Beach.” That admission does not come from someone who genuinely believes taxing the wealthy carries no consequences.Someone who believed that would not worry about Palm Beach.Even Hochul understands perfectly well what happens to a tax base when people leave.At least in New York, she has enough self-awareness to hold the line.Washington state Democrats do not.

Washington Democratspushed Senate Bill 6346 through the legislature after an intense 25-hour floor debate.The bill imposes a 9.9% income tax on households earning over $1 million a year.Democrat Gov.Bob Ferguson has pledged to sign it.

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Former state Attorney General Rob McKenna issued a legal memo calling the bill unconstitutional, pointing to nearly a century of settled precedent.Democrats already know that.Theirstrategy depends on it.

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BLUE STATE’S BILLIONAIRE EXODUS ABOUT TO GET MUCH WORSE IN 2026, INSIDER WARNS

In 1933, the Washington Supreme Court ruled inCulliton v.Chasethat income is property under the state constitution.Article VII requires property to be taxed at a uniform rate, making a graduated income tax flatly unconstitutional.That ruling has held for 93 years.Washington voters have rejected income tax measures at the ballot box 10 separate times. 

Most recently, in 2010, a tax on households above $200,000 went down in 38 of 39 counties.The legislature’s 2021 capital gains tax only survived judicial review because the far-left state Supreme Court bent itself into a pretzel to absurdly classify it narrowly as an excise tax on a specific transaction.A broad millionaires’ income tax is legally distinct, and Democrats are using it to force the court’s hand.

That clean decision is the entire ballgame.Tax supporters are banking on a state Supreme Court now stacked with justices appointed by Democratic governors and backed by liberal interest groups.If Culliton falls, income is formally decoupled from property for the first time in Washington’s history.The uniformity requirement disappears.

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Once that constitutional wall comes down, nothing prevents the legislature from lowering the threshold from $1 million to $500,000 to $200,000 to everyone who draws a paycheck.The millionaires’ tax is not the destination.It is the crowbar to push the income tax on everyone.

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The economic fallout is not waiting for any ruling.

Former state Attorney General Rob McKenna issued a legal memo calling the bill unconstitutional, pointing to nearly a century of settled precedent.Democrats already know that.Their strategy depends on it.

Bulwark Capital Management’s principal toldThe Jason Rantz Show on Seattle Redthat he’s leaving the state and bringing his business with him.The CEO of Moment similarly saidhis business is ditching the statefor Wyoming.Starbucks announced it is expanding its corporate footprint in Nashville, Tenn.

Meanwhile, Downtown Seattle’s office vacancy rate reached a record high above 30% in the final months of 2025, a figure the Downtown Seattle Association’s Jon Scholes tied directly to the city’sescalating tax burden.Scholes noted that Amazon has relocated thousands of employees to Bellevue and other King County locations over recent years due to the increasingly aggressive tax environment.