WA Taxpayers should be concerned.

Seattle’s Direct Tax on Family-Wage Jobs - the “Head Tax”

In 2018, the Seattle City Council passed a massive tax on jobs in the city, commonly known as the “head tax” because it was a per-employee tax directly tied to the number of jobs. More than 500 business in Seattle would have been forced to pay tens of millions of dollars due to Seattle leaders’ failure to address the homeless crisis in our neighborhoods. Within a week, Seattle workers and job creators united to push for this tax to be repealed, gathered tens of thousands of signatures to put an initiative on the ballot removing it. Rather than face the voters, the City Council retreated and repealed this tax - for now. REPEALED

Assault on working families and businesses - Initiative 1631

Extreme environmental activists gathered sufficient signatures to place a “carbon tax” on the statewide ballot in the 2018 general election, with the intent to increase household energy costs by $234 and $305 for the average household in the first year, increasing to $672 and $877 per year after ten years. While backers of I-1631 heralded its efforts to curb carbon emissions, most prominent advocates had publicly opposed the revenue-neutral carbon tax initiative defeated by voters in 2016. The proposal’s lack of new tax revenue proved insufficient for special interests who expected to benefit in return for their support. This radical juxtaposition exposed their criteria of a “carbon tax” for what it really is: a scheme to redistribute wealth through a statewide slush fund. DEFEATED

The Seattle City Council’s tax on grocery items

The city council passed an ordinance to tax targeted grocery items that took effect in January 2018. The CDC reports that younger adults, men, black people, and those with lower levels of education are most likely to consume the taxed items. The city collected millions of dollars more than estimated before implementing the measure, rendering it yet another attempt to reach into the pockets of vulnerable, tax-strapped citizens and predictable failure of government to change their behavior through economic punishment.