||| FROM KOMO NEWS |||
OLYMPIA, Wash. — Lawmakers in Olympia will hold a hearing Thursday on a bill that would tax the wealthiest people living in Washington state.
Senate Bill 5486, which is sponsored by Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), would create a “narrowly tailored property tax on extreme wealth derived from the ownership of stocks, bonds, and other financial assets.” The first $250 million of assessed value would be exempt from the tax.
The 1% property tax on the financial assets is expected to generate around $3 billion a year and would go towards education, affordable housing, disability services and tax credits.
“Making the wealthy few pay what they owe in taxes would allow us to fund our communities with the quality schools, affordable housing, and services our neighbors with disabilities need to thrive,” Frame said. “This is a commonsense bill that ensures that some of the richest people in the world pay property taxes on their assets just like middle-class families who own a home pay taxes on theirs.”
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This bill is setting a tax rate of 1% on assets in excess of $250 million. If you can read that sentence without being outraged then you aren’t paying attention.
Anyone who would like to state their position on the bill without testifying can do so by clicking here: https://app.leg.wa.gov/csi/Testifier/Add?chamber=Senate&mId=30895&aId=152857&caId=21890&tId=3
@Ken: I’m confused here. I honestly fail to see why setting a 1% tax rate on assets in *excess* of *$250 million* is cause for outrage, unless by people who don’t think that taxes should be paid, and that infrastructure is something for the wealthy only?
And even if you have over $250 million in assets (not liquid funds, mind, but properties, stocks, etc.) would you be taxed.
At 1%.
Which is negligible at that level. Literally no effect on one’s lifestyle.
1% of 250,000,000 million is $2,500,000. Put it another way – if it were $250 dollars, you’d be paying $2.50. That seems more than reasonable to me. Laughable, really.
I fail to see the cause for outrage.
I think the outrage is that the minimum assets to trigger the tax is so high.
…or that the tax rate at the stated minimum is so low.
Both.
Lin – What is with the goofy “pictures” ?