> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.rangemedia.co/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Who Wants To Tax a Millionaire? - URL: https://www.rangemedia.co/millionaires-tax-spokane-will-i-pay/ - Published: 2026-10-15T23:00:00.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-15T23:00:00.000Z - Description: Supporters of the Millionaires Tax focus on the “Millionaires” — opponents focus on the “tax.” - Author: Daniel Walters - Tags: Election 2026 You, personally, will not have to pay the Millionaires Tax. That is almost certain. Starting in 2029, the Millionaires Tax, signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson this March, would tax Washington households at 9.9% on any income they make over $1 million. But chances are you’re safe — even if you have a million dollars squirreled away in the bank. As long as your household isn’t unlucky enough to be pulling in $1 million a year in income, you will be spared. Right now, there are fewer than 500 people in the three legislative districts that make up most of Spokane County who would qualify for the tax, according to Washington Department of Revenue data, and you most likely aren’t one of them. Yes, you could be a rare exception. You might be Clearwater Paper CEO Arsen Kitch or Providence executive Scott O'Brien or Gonzaga Basketball Coach Mark Few. (Mark, if you’re reading this, you would probably need to shell out at least $200,000 in taxes every year for your $3 million salary.) But Spokane is not a town of millionaires. Even statewide, according to a [statement](https://governor.wa.gov/news/2026/governor-ferguson-signs-millionaires-tax-law?ref=rangemedia.co) from Ferguson’s office, less than a half of a percent of taxpayers will have to pay the Millionaires Tax. But sometimes, it only takes one millionaire to make a difference: Millionaire Brian Heywood, a hedge fund manager in Seattle, has dedicated a big chunk of his fortune to conservative causes, like repealing the Millionaires Tax. His political action committee, Let’s Go Washington, is leading the effort to pass Initiative 645, which would not only repeal the Millionaires Tax, but ban any income taxes at the state and local level going forward. More than 500,000 Washington state residents — roughly a dozen times more than the number of people who would have to pay the tax — signed the petition to get it on the ballot. Heywood knows very well that millionaires like him make a juicy target — and an unsympathetic victim. "If this is framed as, this is a tax on millionaires, those dirty rich bastards that deserve a good kick in the groin, then people say, ‘Yeah, I'm for a Millionaires Tax,’" Heywood told [KIRO Newsradio](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxjKAJjrwBY&ref=rangemedia.co) in July. So Let’s Go Washington has sought to shift the frame, from what this tax is now to what it could someday *become*. “We ask people one simple question, ‘Do you think this income tax is coming for you?’” Heywood continued, “Just asking the question, the polling switches 60-40 the other way.” ### **Someone’s gonna pay** The Legislature intends the Millionaires Tax to do more than simply raise revenue. They want to shift the Washington state tax burden from the poor toward the rich. “What's cool about the Millionaires' Tax is it actually directly impacts all ends of the tax spectrum in a few different ways,” said Emily Vyhnanek, with the Washington Budget and Policy Center, a progressive think tank. For years, Washington state’s tax code has been cited as an example of progressive hypocrisy. For all the state’s Democratic dominance, its tax system punished the poor more heavily than any other state in the nation. Because poor people spend a much greater percent of their incomes on things they buy at the store than the rich, relying heavily on a sales tax means the low-income residents bear the biggest burden. "The top 1% of our state, because of our tax code that's from the 1930s, have gotten a really special deal for a really long time," Vyhnanek said. But in 2024, the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy reranked Washington as the second most regressive, behind Florida. Credit, in part, goes to the legislature’s 2021 decision to tax capital gains, the sale of long-term assets like stocks and investments. Still, the poorest 20% still have to pay a three times larger share of their income than the top 1%. “The Millionaires Tax could get Washington out of the ‘Terrible 10s,’ which is the 10 most inequitable tax codes in the country,” she said. That Millionaires Tax bill doesn’t just hammer the richest, it lightens the load on the poorest: At the same time the tax goes online in 2029, the law would eliminate sales taxes on specific necessities like diapers, tampons, toothbrushes and Tylenol. The measure would also dramatically expand the number of households that qualify for the Working Family Tax Credit, a sales tax refund for lower-income workers. In Spokane County, the number would more than double to over 66,000 households, Vyhnanek said. "That means that 25% of the county is going to be eligible," Vyhnanek said. “If you're a family with three dependents that qualifies for this credit, you could be getting upwards of $1,300.” Seattle is so much richer than Spokane — with so many more millionaires who would pay the tax — Vyhnanek said that it effectively works out as a wealth transfer from the west side to the rest of the state. The campaign pushing to keep the Millionaires Tax is funded by deep union pockets — particularly teachers unions. The more money in the state general fund, the more money is available to spend on education. But in Spokane, at least, many of the biggest funders of the initiative to defeat the Millionaires Tax are millionaires themselves, PDC filings show. $20,000 came from the company of Harley Douglass, the son of late real estate billionaire Harlan Douglass. $5,000 came from Stacey Cowles, publisher of the Spokesman-Review. And while it may seem strange that public school librarian Brenda Hester had given $5,000 to Let’s Go Washington, it makes more sense when you see that her husband, who makes more than $1 million as the CEO of real estate company Kiemle Hagood, also gave $5,000\. Critics of the Millionaires Tax [argue](https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/27/us/politics/washington-state-millionaires-tax.html?ref=rangemedia.co) that the more inhospitable you make the state for the rich, the more the rich will flee the state, taking all their taxable income with them. Amazon’s Jeff Bezos left. So did Starbucks founder Howard Schultz. But supporters say that’s overblown. “The most common myth is that millionaires might just pick up and leave,” said Vyhnanek. “There’s a broad swath of research that shows that is just not true on a broad level.” Vyhnanek notes critics made the same argument after Washington passed a capital gains tax in 2021\. But setting the high-profile examples aside, there *hasn’t* been a significant migration of the rich. “Millionaires, just like everybody else, make decisions about where they live based on the things we all consider, like how close are we to family?” Vyhnanek said. “The concept of embeddedness within your community applies to millionaires as well.” ### **But the tax after that…** No matter what happens with the voter initiative, it’s not entirely clear that the tax will survive the courts. The state constitution declares that “all taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property” and courts have previously ruled that income counts as property. So, the thinking goes, a tax that hammers millionaires with one rate and non-millionaires with another rate doesn’t fly. But a similar legal challenge to overturn the capital gains tax failed, and the current makeup of the state Supreme Court is anything but comforting for conservatives. That same Supreme Court rejected a conservative objection to the language accompanying the initiative on the ballot, claiming the repeal of the tax “would decrease funding for public K-12 education, higher education (including universities and community colleges), and human services (primarily healthcare)” Yet the Millionaires Tax doesn’t explicitly earmark the money for any of those things: Other than 5% going to support early childcare and preschool programs, the rest goes into the general fund, where it can be used for anything the legislature pleases. With the state supreme court evenly split on whether the language was acceptable, the ballot language stands. If the court rules that income taxes are constitutional in Washington state, Republicans warn, the Millionaires Tax is just the beginning. In a TV interview back in May, Millionaires Tax sponsor Sen. Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) said he “personally, absolutely” supports a universal income tax for all Washington state residents, but that he didn’t believe his colleagues would ever support it. Even some on the left believe that the Millionaires Tax is not intended to be the end. “One thing that is frustrating about The Discourse about millionaires tax is Democrats pretending they don't have the goal of doing a larger, progressive income tax,” tweeted *The Burner* writer Hannah Krieg, a left-wing former journalist for *The Stranger*. Ferguson has promised he’ll [veto](https://www.spokesman.com/stories/2026/may/27/ferguson-vows-to-veto-any-expansion-of-wa-milliona/?ref=rangemedia.co) any attempt to expand the tax. But historically, this-far-and-no-further promises from Washington state politicians on taxes have had a limited shelf life. Former Governor Jay Inslee swore up and down that he would veto [income taxes](https://www.seattletimes.com/seattle-news/politics/does-gov-jay-inslee-support-a-state-income-tax-no-he-does-not/?ref=rangemedia.co) while in office. But that didn’t stop him from endorsing the capital gains tax. And that didn’t stop him from saying this year, “I would have proudly signed the Millionaires Tax if it had come to my desk as governor.” There is, of course, a remedy if the Washington state Legislature decides to break its promise and put an income tax on non-millionaires: another initiative. **Editor’s Note:* None of the staff writers or freelancers or RANGE will have to pay the Millionaires Tax.*