John Braun commentary: An income tax on anyone in our state would become an income tax on everyone
Friday, January 16, 2026
Do the Democrats who run Olympia think Washingtonians are fools? It sure seems that way as we learn more about their plan to create a state income tax.
As I write this, we still don’t know the details, because no income tax bill has been filed. But Democrat leaders clearly want to approve a state income tax this year — and now we see how they’ll try to sell it.
From Gov. Bob Ferguson on down, income tax supporters claim it would apply only to people whose annual taxable income exceeds $1 million. That’s right in line with their divisive, make-the-wealthy-pay-more ideology. It also acts as the “bait.”
The trouble is, everyone knows a state income tax has been a Democrat dream for many decades. Common sense tells us the ultimate goal is to have every Washington resident pay it. A high-ranking member of the House Democrat majority even agrees. That’s the “switch.”
An online cartoon about this shows a fox outside a henhouse, promising that if the hens would just open the door only the millionaires will be eaten. It’s a funny way of making the very serious point that income-tax proponents can’t be trusted to mean what they say.
The bait-and-switch continues with the claim that money from an income tax would go to reduce other taxes.
Don’t be fooled. The 2021 state law that taxes income from capital gains includes language complaining that our state’s tax code is unfair and regressive and declares that imposing the tax will make progress toward “rebalancing” it. Democrats included those same words in the new law increasing the capital-gains tax rate. The death tax was sold in a similar way.
Has anyone seen a tax cut because of the capital-gains tax or any other new tax, for that matter? No. All it has done is generate more money for government. The same will happen if Democrats impose a state income tax.
Supporters also neglect to mention how their income tax would hit many family businesses. It wasn’t so long ago that our state Department of Commerce used Washington’s lack of an income tax as a tool for attracting employers.
Owners of family businesses usually reinvest profits back into their businesses to help them grow. Taking more of that money through a new income tax means fewer dollars to create jobs.
If a business can’t grow here, it dies or looks for a friendlier state. It’s as though Democrats simply can’t grasp how having more employers and more economic activity here is a good thing all around.
The Senate majority leader and the governor have talked about lowering taxes on businesses if a state income tax is passed. Again, don’t be fooled.
We saw no concern for Washington businesses a year ago from Democrats when they approved big increases in the business-and-occupation tax and the sales tax. Those will cost $8.2 billion over four years and made up two-thirds of the historically large tax package passed in 2025 in response to a budget shortfall.
Also, Democrats are still going after businesses this year by pushing a tax on jobs. It’s a statewide version of the hostile policy that drove many high-paying jobs out of Seattle. The new Senate version is SB 6093.
Washington voters have rejected a state income tax at every opportunity over the past 90-plus years. Even if Democrats pass one in 2026, they know it will be challenged in court, end up on a ballot, or both. A couple of years could easily go by before it’s all settled. Instead, legislators should focus on the immediate problem: The big shortfall in the state’s 2025-27 operating budget signed by Gov. Ferguson only about eight months ago.
The experts on the Senate’s non-partisan budget-committee staff, who have no political agenda, have calculated the gap between spending commitments and anticipated revenue. It stands at $1.5 billion over the current budget cycle, which runs through June 2027, and $4 billion over the state’s four-year budget outlook.
Republicans will battle any income-tax bill, of course, but we also must watch out for the tax bills Democrats may push to deal with this second straight shortfall — caused, again, by their overspending. The jobs tax is one, or the tax on innovation that was passed by the Senate majority in 2025. That would be a double whammy — higher taxes on businesses this year and an income tax that would kick in just a couple years down the road.
Let’s close with one more reason to distrust anything the Democrats say about an income tax. Several weeks ago, I brought up in this space how the Legislature’s passage of Initiative 2111 in 2024 made a state income tax illegal. That’s on top of the state Supreme Court’s 1933 ruling that a non-uniform state income tax is unconstitutional.
Since then we’ve learned how little the income tax ban means to Democrats.
In a recent Seattle radio interview, the Senate majority leader candidly described Democrat legislators’ support for I-2111 as a “pie-crust promise.” That’s a line from the 1964 movie Mary Poppins and refers to how a promise, like a pie crust, is “easily made, easily broken.”
Remember this when Democrats claim their income tax will apply only to a certain income level, or that they’ll lower other taxes in exchange for a state income tax. Those should be viewed as nothing more than pie-crust promises — a bait-and-switch to make fools of the people.
The truth is simple: An income tax on anyone in Washington would become an income tax on everyone in Washington. This is not how we make our state better.
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Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans part of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.