WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 Across the country, Democratic progressives and far-left socialists continue to ramp up efforts to tax the rich. But in some states, the proposed policies are driving Americans and businesses out. In Seattle, self-described Democratic socialist Mayor Katie Wilson is being slammed for her recent dismissive comments regarding the city’s exodus of wealthy residents.<\/p>\n
I think the claims that millionaires are going to leave our state are like super overblown, and you know, the ones that leave…like bye,\u201d Wilson said while speaking in April.<\/p>\n
One of the companies being waved off, Starbucks. In March, the coffee giant announced a $100 million investment to open a new corporate office in Nashville, Tennessee, which has no state income tax and lower operating costs. The company’s former CEO, Howard Shultz, is also taking his reported $3.5 billion net worth to Miami, Florida. His move coincided with the state’s passage of a 9.9% millionaires tax.<\/p>\n
While Washington D.C. is taking us backwards, the good news here in Washington state, we’re moving forward everybody,\u201d said (D) Gov. Bob Ferguson in March after signing the bill.<\/p>\n
On the East Coast, New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani is spearheading the “tax the rich” efforts to try and cut into the city’s projected $2.2 billion budget deficit. Not only asking the state for a bailout to help close the gap, but also proposing a tax on second homes valued over $5 million.<\/p>\n
This tax will raise at least $500 million directly for the city. It will help fund things like free child care, cleaner streets, safer neighborhoods,\u201d Mamdani said in a social media video posted in mid April.<\/p>\n
IRS data shows these policies, in part, are leading to relocation. California, which has a billionaire’s tax on the 2026 ballot, lost just under $12 billion in income from 2022-2023. Followed by New York and Illinois. The biggest winners, Florida and Texas, both of whom don’t have state income tax, gained over $20 billion and $5 billion, respectively. Meanwhile, in Maryland, residents told Sinclair’s WBFF that rising costs are causing them to relocate. In 2025, Governor Wes Moore signed the largest tax and fee increase in state history. Hiking costs on things like car registration and tires.<\/p>\n
Just to pay this much money, this much utilities, this much taxes is just really too much,\u201d Maryland resident Honey Levitzky told WBFF.<\/p>\n
Plus, Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., who in March introduced the “Make Billionaires Pay Their Fair Share Act,” was seen campaigning with controversial Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed over the weekend. Sanders said D.C. needs leaders who will take on the political establishment.<\/p>\n
Today in American history we have more income and wealth inequality than we have ever had in the history of our country,\u201d Sanders said.<\/p>\n
Data from the IRS, Tax Foundation, Congressional Budget Office, and Bureau of Economic Analysis also showed that the top 1% of earners pay 40% of income taxes and 27% of all federal taxes. The highest states are New York, Connecticut and California. The lowest are Alaska, Wyoming and Tennessee. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"WASHINGTON (TNND) \u2014 Across the country, Democratic progressives and far-left socialists continue to ramp up efforts to tax…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[148],"tags":[4704,34484,5188,34485,34486,5151,4321,3973,553],"class_list":{"0":"post-57271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-zohran-mamdani","8":"tag-bernie-sanders","9":"tag-democratic-states","10":"tag-income-inequality","11":"tag-relocation","12":"tag-state-budgets","13":"tag-tax-policy","14":"tag-tax-the-rich","15":"tag-wealth-tax","16":"tag-zohran-mamdani"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@people\/116519754972822039","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/people\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}