Washington Taxed Its Millionaires. Now the Rich Want It Repealed.

Voters in Washington State will soon be asked to decide which they resent more: rich people or new taxes.

At issue is the state’s new “millionaires tax,” a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million a year that is expected to bring in more than $3 billion annually and, in the process, ease if not solve the state’s ongoing fiscal problems.

Critics want voters to repeal it and bar state leaders from imposing income taxes in the future, arguing the millionaires tax will drive out wealthy entrepreneurs and eventually lead to income taxes on everyone else.

“The goal is to put an income tax on every Washingtonian,” former United States Representative Jaime Herrera Beutler, a Republican, said at a recent news conference organized by one of the campaigns working to repeal the tax. “Don’t let them fool you.”

The November election will test how voters feel about taxing the rich up and down the West Coast. In California, voters are considering both a “millionaire tax” and a “billionaire tax.” The less debated proposal asks voters to make permanent a temporary income tax hike on couples who earn at least $743,000 a year.

Voters will also decide whether to approve a new wealth tax on people with at least $1 billion in assets, a proposal that has generated enormous blowback from wealthy residents as well as teachers and health care interests who fear it will damage the state budget.