An uncomfortable truth about Washington's tax code.

Washington's tax system works great for people like me. That's exactly why it's broken for almost everyone else.

I work in tech. Because Washington relies almost entirely on property and sales taxes, the burden on working families is brutal, while high earners get a massive break.

Between property tax bills and sales tax, a typical working-class family pays about 7.6% to 10% of their income in state and local taxes just to survive. My household? Barely 2.5%. It's a pittance.

You pay 3x more than me as a percentage of your income. That's backwards.

The Three Pillars of a Broken System

Washington is the only state in the country that funds itself almost entirely on three highly regressive taxes. That means the less money you make, the higher the percentage of your paycheck goes to the government. Here is why the math actively punishes the middle class:

🛒 1. The ~10% Sales Tax

A median family making $116k has to spend almost 100% of their paycheck just to survive (clothes, cars, home repairs). They pay the state's ~10% sales tax on almost every dollar they earn. High earners don't spend all their money at a cash register—we put massive chunks of it into investments, index funds, and savings, which are completely untouched by sales tax.

🏠 2. The Endless Property Levies

Property tax is disconnected from your ability to pay. If you are a retiree on a fixed income, or a working family, your paycheck doesn't go up just because your home's assessed value did. Furthermore, because Olympia chronically underfunds education, local districts are forced to constantly pass local levies just to keep the lights on, driving your bill up every year.

🏪 3. The B&O Tax (Gross Receipts)

Most states tax businesses on their profits. Washington taxes small businesses on their gross revenue. This means a local mom-and-pop shop can actually lose money for the year, and the state will still hand them a massive tax bill just for keeping their doors open. It crushes local businesses while massive tech monopolies barely feel it.

The Solution: The Grand Bargain

  • 📉 CUT your ACTUAL property tax bill in HALF (State backfills the schools).
  • 🛒 CUT sales tax in HALF (10% → 5%).
  • 🏪 ELIMINATE the B&O tax to save small businesses.
  • 📈 REPLACE with a graduated income tax (3%/5%) for individuals, AND a separate Corporate Tax based on profits, not gross.
  • 🔍 ADD an Independent Accountability Office for 100% public transparency and auditing power.
  • 🔒 CONSTITUTIONAL LOCK. The individual tax brackets are hardcoded into the State Constitution. Olympia cannot raise your rates, but they keep the legislative flexibility to close corporate tax loopholes.

Don't take my word for it. Run your own math.

The Math Simulator

Select your area. We'll pull the median data, or you can enter your exact numbers.

*Sales tax burden estimated using the Marginal Propensity to Consume (MPC) brackets sourced from the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) 2024 "Who Pays?" report. Property tax rates based on validated 2024 effective county/city millage rates.

Frequently Asked Questions

What exactly does an ~$8 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 $3 to $4 Billion. That leaves $4 to $5 Billion leftover every single year. That is a massive influx of cash to fix state infrastructure and roads, tackle the homelessness crisis, properly fund public safety, pay down state debt, or put into a rainy day fund—all without taxing the middle class to do it.

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.

Doesn't Olympia have a "spending problem," not a revenue problem?

Yes. You cannot pour more money into a leaky bucket, which is why we must fix both the regressive tax structure and the lack of accountability. That is why the Grand Bargain requires the creation of a fully independent Accountability Office. This isn't just an advisory board—it must have subpoena power to force uncooperative state agencies to open their books, and it must publish unredacted, plain-English audit reports to the public. We fix the math for working families, and we legally force Olympia to prove where every single dollar goes.

Won't Olympia just slowly raise the 3% and 5% rates later?

For real, working people? No. The individual rates (3% and 5%) are hardcoded into the State Constitution. Olympia cannot alter the constitution with a standard legislative vote. To raise your rates by even a single penny, it would require a two-thirds supermajority in the House, a two-thirds supermajority in the Senate, AND a majority vote by the public on a statewide ballot. We are legally taking the power to raise individual taxes out of the legislature's hands.

But for mega-corporations? Yes. We leave the legislature flexibility on the corporate tax side. Corporations play accounting games all day long to hide profits. Olympia needs the agility to quickly close corporate loopholes without waiting for a multi-year constitutional amendment process. Real people get the constitutional shield; corporations don't.

What about inflation pushing middle-class workers into the 5% bracket?

This is a valid fear known as "bracket creep." If you pass a static tax bracket, inflation secretly raises everyone's taxes over decades as wages naturally go up. To prevent this, the Grand Bargain amendment legally requires the $100,000 threshold to be indexed to inflation (just like the IRS standard deduction). If inflation goes up 3%, the bracket limit goes up 3%.

The Bottom Line

When you run the math, the middle class finally gets a break. We meet in the middle. Everyone pays a similar, fair share.

Tax me more.

Tax you less.

I'm 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.

Want to help make this real?

If the math makes sense to you, join the coalition. Drop your email below to get updates when we are ready to take this to Olympia. No spam. Just real, meaningful progress.

A movement built by actual Washington taxpayers.