What are the exact tax brackets and rules?
We believe in 100% transparent math. To avoid the "marriage penalty," standard scaling is applied to all brackets and deductions depending on how you file. Here is exactly how the new income tax is structured:
| Policy |
Married / Joint |
Single |
| Standard Deduction (Mirrors Federal) |
$31,000 |
$15,500 |
| 3% Bracket (Middle Class) |
Up to $200,000 |
Up to $100,000 |
| 5% Bracket (Upper Income) |
$200,000 to $1 Million |
$100,000 to $1 Million |
| 9.9% Bracket (Millionaires) |
Over $1,000,000 |
Over $1,000,000 |
| Renter's Credit (Max $1,000 per dwelling) |
Income under $400,000 |
Income under $200,000 |
| Social Security |
100% Exempt |
100% Exempt |
🛡️ Inflation Protection & Bracket Creep
To ensure politicians cannot quietly raise your taxes through inflation, all income brackets and the Renter's Credit limits are constitutionally indexed to inflation. Additionally, the Standard Deduction is designed to mirror the Federal Standard Deduction (currently $31,000 for joint filers in 2025), keeping your state and federal tax prep as simple as possible.
Is this model unique or untested?
The Grand Bargain started with Idaho's homework. Idaho has one of the most livable tax structures in the country, including a ~6% sales tax, property tax rates roughly half of Washington's, a flat income tax, and Social Security completely exempt. We used Idaho as the baseline and asked: what would Washington look like if we built toward that model?
That meant cutting our ~10% sales tax in half to match Idaho's range. It meant targeting property tax rates closer to Idaho's. It meant replacing the B&O gross receipts tax with an income tax like Idaho's, but improving on the flat rate by making it graduated, so lower-income households pay less than higher earners.
Then we added Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, known as TABOR, which requires a direct public vote to raise income tax rates, so politicians can never quietly undo what voters approved.
One model comes from a deep red state. The other is a taxpayer protection mechanism so popular it has survived for 30 years even as Colorado turned blue, because voters of every stripe don't trust politicians with unlimited taxing power. The Grand Bargain doesn't care where good ideas come from, only whether they work.
The tax rates seem too low to generate that much revenue. Is this realistic?
That reaction is actually the point. Washington's concentration of wealth, including Amazon, Microsoft, Boeing, and one of the densest clusters of high-earning tech workers in the country, creates a taxable base so large that you don't need punishing rates to generate transformative revenue. Our 9.9% top bracket uses the exact same threshold the Washington Senate just voted on, so those revenue projections aren't theoretical. For context, Oregon's middle class pays 9.9% starting at incomes far below ours, and they generate over $10 billion annually from a smaller, less wealthy population. Washington can fully fund schools, cut your property and sales taxes in half, eliminate the B&O, build a rainy day fund, and fix infrastructure, and still ask high earners for an effective rate lower than what Oregon's middle class pays today. The math isn't too good to be true. Washington is just that wealthy.
Washington voters have rejected an income tax before. Why bring it up again?
Because past proposals were just new taxes piled on top of the old ones. Voters were right to reject them. The Grand Bargain is completely different: it is a constitutionally mandated tax swap. We are not just adding an income tax; we are legally forcing the state to cut your property and sales taxes in half in exchange. It is the first proposal that actually lowers the tax burden for the working and middle class.
Is this a "Wealth Tax"? Will I be taxed on my home equity or unrealized stock gains?
Absolutely not. This is a standard income tax based purely on realized income (like your W-2 paycheck, business net profits, or finalized stock sales). It does not tax unrealized gains, it does not tax your 401k balances, and it does not tax the equity sitting in your home.
Will tech workers and high earners just leave the state?
No. The math simply doesn't support an exodus. Our 9.9% top bracket only kicks in on income above $1,000,000. If a tech worker earns $500,000, their effective state tax rate here would be roughly 4% to 5%. Compare that to California (13.3%) or Oregon (9.9% starting at much lower incomes). We are not punishing success; we are simply asking high earners to pay an effective rate that is still significantly lower than nearly every comparable tech hub in the country, allowing us to permanently rebalance the burden on the middle class.
Why not just move to Tennessee like everyone says?
The "move to Tennessee" argument sounds compelling until you run the actual numbers side by side. Tennessee is ranked the 3rd most regressive tax system in the country by the same ITEP report that ranks Washington 1st. Businesses and families fleeing Washington's broken system are landing in the 3rd most broken system. That is not an escape. That is a lateral move.
- The Sales Tax Trap: Tennessee charges a 9.6% average sales tax and applies it to groceries. The Grand Bargain drops Washington to approximately 5% and keeps groceries exempt.
- The Business Franchise Tax: People assume Tennessee is a business haven. But Tennessee has its own gross receipts-style franchise tax on a company's net worth, meaning businesses pay even if they lose money. The Grand Bargain eliminates Washington's B&O gross receipts tax entirely, replacing it with a pure profit model. If your startup loses money under our model, your state tax bill is zero.
- The Property Tax Match: Tennessee's one genuine advantage is a low property tax rate around 0.47%. But the Grand Bargain cuts Washington's property tax in half, putting us at roughly 0.5%. We completely neutralize their only mathematical advantage, and in lower-levy rural areas like Eastern Washington, our rates would actually beat Tennessee's.
The honest comparison is clear. Post Grand Bargain, Washington beats Tennessee on sales tax, matches Tennessee on property tax, eliminates a gross receipts tax Tennessee still has, and adds a constitutional rate lock Tennessee does not offer. We do not just match Tennessee. We beat it.
Washington has a spending problem. How do we know Olympia won't just waste this?
You are exactly right to be skeptical, which is why we are not just handing politicians a blank check, and we aren't creating a new government bureaucracy to watch them, either. The Grand Bargain establishes a constitutional mandate for independent, third-party external auditors. These private auditing firms are incentivized only to report the truth. Every dollar in the K-12, Rainy Day, and Infrastructure trusts will be aggressively audited, and the results will be published directly to the public. We are giving investigative journalists and taxpayers the exact, unfiltered financial data they need to flush out inefficiencies, expose waste, and force true accountability.
Don't our public schools already spend around $20,000 per student? Why do they need more?
It is true that top-line spending looks high, but the state's funding formulas are broken. Olympia arbitrarily caps funding for things like special education and transportation, forcing local districts to pass property tax levies just to fill the gaps. The Grand Bargain forces the state to pay its constitutional share. At the same time, our mandatory independent audits will directly target administrative bloat, ensuring that money goes into the classrooms, not to unnecessary district administration.
What stops Olympia from just inventing a new B&O-style tax by another name?
The Constitutional Amendment explicitly prohibits any future tax on business gross revenue or gross receipts. The legal drafting draws a hard line between a consumer point-of-sale tax (sales tax) and a tax on the privilege of doing business measured by gross revenue (B&O). Olympia will be constitutionally barred from ever bringing the B&O tax back in disguise.
How does this affect small business owners and LLCs?
It is a massive tax cut. Consider a local restaurant doing $800,000 in gross revenue but taking home just $60,000 in actual net profit. Under the current B&O system, they pay thousands in taxes on that full $800k, even if they are barely keeping the lights on. Under the Grand Bargain, the B&O tax is eliminated. They only pay the new income tax on their $60,000 net profit, which, after the standard deduction, means they likely pay close to zero state taxes while their business grows.
Why do renters get a tax credit? They don't pay property taxes.
Yes, they do. It is just hidden in their monthly rent. When local districts pass a new school levy, property taxes go up, and landlords immediately pass those increased costs down to their tenants to protect their margins. Renters feel the pain of our broken property tax system just as much as homeowners do. The Renter's Credit ensures that when we fix the system, working-class renters actually see the financial relief.
Aren't we just becoming Oregon?
Not even close. Oregon has a high income tax, but they do not have a constitutional rate lock, they do not have a 50% property tax cut, and they do not have a Renter's Credit. The Grand Bargain gives Washington a significantly lower effective tax burden for the working and middle class than Oregon, while providing much stronger taxpayer protections.
What exactly does a $7 to $10 Billion surplus buy us?
Right now, the state underfunds K-12 education, forcing local towns to pass property tax levies. Fully funding the state's education gap costs roughly $4 Billion. In a median economic year, that leaves billions leftover. Because of the Constitutional Waterfall, that excess is legally locked into a Rainy Day fund until it hits a $3 Billion minimum reserve, and only then flows into an Infrastructure Trust to fix failing bridges like the White River Bridge in Enumclaw and our Washington State Ferries system. All without taxing the middle class to do it.
Income taxes are volatile. What happens during a tech recession?
This is exactly why the Rainy Day Fund is constitutionally mandated. Capturing the wealth of tech RSUs and corporate profits means revenue will fluctuate. In a boom year, the surplus could exceed $12 Billion. In a recession, it will shrink. But even in a severe recession, K-12 education remains 100% funded. The Constitutional Waterfall legally requires the Rainy Day Fund to hit a $3 Billion minimum reserve before a single dime is spent on new infrastructure. We build a permanent shock absorber during the boom years so our schools are bulletproof during the bad ones, no matter what the stock market does.
How does this help Seniors on fixed incomes?
We use the "Idaho Model." Social Security income is 100% exempt from the new state income tax. This means a typical retired couple will see their property tax bill cut in half and their sales tax cut in half, but they will likely pay zero new income tax.
Wait, isn't an income tax unconstitutional in Washington?
Yes, a graduated income tax is currently unconstitutional here. That is actually the most important part of this plan. By requiring a Constitutional Amendment, politicians cannot simply pass an income tax by themselves. The amendment legally binds the new income tax to the 50% cuts in property and sales taxes. They cannot have one without the other.
Won't Olympia just slowly raise the rates later?
No. We use a version of Colorado's Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, known as TABOR, which Colorado voters passed in 1992. TABOR's core mechanic is simple: it strips politicians of the ability to raise taxes unilaterally by requiring a direct public vote for any rate increase. We apply that same principle here specifically to the individual income tax brackets, which are hardcoded into the State Constitution at 3%, 5%, and 9.9%. To raise your rates by even a single penny, it would require a direct vote by the public on a statewide ballot. However, we deliberately leave the Corporate Tax out of the constitutional lock. This gives the legislature the agility they need to close loopholes and crack down on creative accounting by massive corporations without having to wait for a public election.
When you run the math, the middle class finally gets a break. We meet in the middle. Everyone pays a similar, fair share.
I am trying to build a coalition to start a real conversation about this. To finally fix the upside-down, broken tax system here and stop the band-aids. Real, meaningful reform.