OLYMPIA, Wash. \u2014 A historic floor debate over a proposed tax on high-earning households entered its 24th hour in the Washington State House of Representatives. <\/p>\n
The measure would create a 9.9% tax increase on households in the state earning more than $1 million.<\/p>\n
When Representatives finally voted, there were 51 yays, 46 nays, and 1 vote was excused. <\/p>\n
Democrats say the proposed Millionaires\u2019 Tax would generate up to $3 billion in state funds for education, health care, and public safety. <\/p>\n
Rep. Jim Walsh, Republican chairman from the 19th District, noted the unprecedented nature of the current proceedings. \u201cWe\u2019ve never had a floor debate this long in this state before,\u201d Walsh said. <\/p>\n
Walsh told reporters outside the House chambers that the GOP strategy is to slow the bill\u2019s passage and delay votes on other legislation they oppose before the session concludes. <\/p>\n
Walsh described the Republican effort as a \u201cparliamentary chess game\u201d intended to block the measure. \u201cThey call it the Millionaire\u2019s Tax, it\u2019s absolutely not a Millionaires Tax,\u201d Walsh said. <\/p>\n
He expressed concern that the tax could eventually impact households earning less than $1 million. <\/p>\n
\u201cSo if you are a married couple and you are both doing pretty well but neither of you is making a million, you may bump up against that threshold anyway,\u201d Walsh said. <\/p>\n
District 44 Representative April Berg argued that the bill is designed to improve affordability for residents. Berg stated that the legislation includes provisions to help small businesses and low-income families. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe are trying to say it in plain speak that this is a tax on millionaires and that is what the bill does,\u201d Berg said. <\/p>\n
Berg also criticized the Republican strategy of extended floor debate as a delay tactic. <\/p>\n
\u201cThat is prolonging the debate. So, I think that is something that the public should know,\u201d Berg said. <\/p>\n
She said that there are amendments in place to ensure the tax does not pass the financial burden to families earning less than the $1 million threshold. <\/p>\n
Republicans also expressed concern that the new tax would force businesses out of Washington. <\/p>\n
Walsh stated that the GOP is attempting to define the narrative regarding the proposal. \u201cWe\u2019re setting, I hope, kind of the story about what this state income tax is. What it will do to business here in Washington,\u201d Walsh said. <\/p>\n
The legislative session is scheduled to end this Thursday. <\/p>\n
If the legislation is approved by the House and signed into law, the tax would not take effect until 2029.<\/p>\n
The bill will go to Governor Bob Ferguson\u2019s desk.<\/p>\n
\u00a92026 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OLYMPIA, Wash. \u2014 A historic floor debate over a proposed tax on high-earning households entered its 24th hour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3817,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[3280,3281,409,3277,3273,3278,8,858,3271,3276,3275,3279,3274,694,3272,9,3270,711,412,7,558,1337],"class_list":{"0":"post-3816","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-top-stories","8":"tag-april_berg","9":"tag-cairo","10":"tag-democrats","11":"tag-elle","12":"tag-elle_thomas","13":"tag-evergreen_state","14":"tag-headlines","15":"tag-house","16":"tag-house_democrats","17":"tag-jake","18":"tag-jake_chapman","19":"tag-jim_walsh","20":"tag-kyri_evans","21":"tag-local","22":"tag-monique_minglobin","23":"tag-news","24":"tag-olympia","25":"tag-representative","26":"tag-republicans","27":"tag-top-stories","28":"tag-video","29":"tag-washington"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@news\/116212798814569624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3816"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3816\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3817"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3816"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3816"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3816"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}