Washington needs to tax the ultra-rich. It would be a game-changer for people like me | Opinion
Wealth tax
My partner suffers from a chronic illness. After his diagnosis, I became his professional in-home caregiver represented by SEIU 775, the caregivers union.
We pay a disproportionate amount in taxes to fund the very services designed to help us. Under Washington’s tax system, lower-income workers, like myself, pay for what we must use to get by — like public transit, healthcare, schooling and housing.
The poor are locked in a vicious cycle — relying on unacceptably underfunded public infrastructure services, funded almost entirely by ourselves, and insufficient to elevate us beyond vulnerability.
HB 1473/SB 5486 would place a 1% tax on the financial property (exceeding $250 million) of Washington’s ultra-wealthy, so that working people who created that wealth can see the fruits of our labor take form in our own communities. We could see the vulnerable housed, healed and educated, and see our neighbors with disabilities truly cared for with fully funded programs and services.
Our communities need what we are owed by the extremely wealthy.
They will not feel the loss, but we will feel seismic shifts in our quality of life.
Matthew F. Garringer, Tacoma
Climate investments
As I was driving home from a ski trip recently, the massive burn area along Highway 2 from September’s Bolt Creek fire was a stark reminder of the fact that Washingtonians are already experiencing the impacts of climate change.
While these impacts are felt close to home, we now have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to fund climate action using funds generated from the Climate Commitment Act (CCA), a landmark policy passed in 2021 that caps climate pollution and makes polluters pay for their emissions. The Legislature is deciding now how to spend these funds.
The list of proposals on the table is exciting and hopeful. The House’s budget includes $115 million to support building electrification and over $250 million to support incentives and infrastructure for zero-emission medium-sized and heavy-duty trucks. The Senate budget includes over $70 million for improving air quality, building out air monitoring, and reducing health disparities in overburdened communities. These are just some of the highlights.
We must use CCA funds as intended: for projects like these that support solutions that get us closer to meeting our climate pollution reduction goals.
This is a historic opportunity. Let’s not leave it on the table.
Pamela Clough, Steilacoom
Assault weapon ban
AR-15-style rifles should be banned. Republicans have spent enormous amounts of time enacting anti-trans and anti-LGBTQ laws, banning drag shows and banning books, while refusing to engage in conversation on stricter gun laws.
No child has been killed attending a drag show or reading a banned book. However, dozens of children have been killed in mass shootings, and hundreds more traumatized because of a mass shooter’s use of an AR-15. As long as these weapons are available to the public, some individuals will use them in mass shootings.
It is irrational for Republicans to fight the banning of these weapons. We can’t say these Congress members don’t understand the issue. We can say they don’t care.
Doris Eddy, Tacoma
