Across the country, Democrats are moving forward with millionaire taxes to tap wealthy taxpayers to address budget shortfalls. We have previously discussed how such wealth taxes are unconstitutional (in my view) in the federal system. However, state constitutions have been interpreted to allow such taxes. More importantly, there is no constitutional barrier to imposing huge increases in income taxes on wealthy taxpayers. That is what just happened in Washington as Democratic legislators seek to reproduce the exodus of wealth from California. Virginia is also moving toward a 10% millionaire’s tax as part of a slew of new taxes introduced after Democrats retook power in Richmond. (They also voted themselves close to a 300% raise).I have long been a critic of such taxes which have proven failures that end up shrinking the tax base by chasing any rational taxpayers out of a state. Democrats often treat high-paying taxpayers as a type of canned hunt, ignoring that both the wealth and the wealthy are mobile.
Take Washington’s massive tax increase. Democrats just approved a 9.9 percent tax on income above $1 million. If you stay in Washington, you’ll pay a combined rate with the top income tax (37 percent) of over 46 percent. It will make Washington the state with the highest tax rate in the United States. With California next door, that is no small feat.
Many taxpayers are joining figures like Jeff Bezos and various businesses heading to low-tax states. Washington is already one of the states with the highest levels of migration out of the state, so Democrats are rushing to offer new reasons to leave.
The solution proposed by some Democratic politicians, like Rep. Ro Khanna, is to call for a national wealth tax that would force the rich to either move out of the country or pony up more money. The problem is that, even if the Supreme Court upholds a wealth tax, it has already been tried with disastrous results. France imposed such taxes on its wealthiest citizens, who promptly left France. Many came to the United States.
Some will not be sticking around to experience that joy of wealth redistribution in Washington state. Starbucks founder Howard Schultz just announced that he is leaving the state that launched his iconic brand. In his letter to Seattle, Schultz wrote “It is our hope that Washington will remain a place for business and entrepreneurship to thrive, creating essential opportunity for those in Seattle and the surrounding areas.” Schultz cited various reasons for leaving, including their “enter[ing] the ‘retirement’ phase of our lives.” However, for top taxpayers in the state, there are fewer and fewer reasons to stay.
Where is Schultz going? You guessed it . . . Florida.
The MORON VOTERS in Washington State are getting EXACTLY what they voted for – Soviet Style Governance and to be led by the nose like a prize winning bull to slaughter! The idiots who believed PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE was only going to apply to highly mobile Millionaires and Billionaires deserve to be fleeced for nearly all their money because stupid people don’t deserve to keep their money! The socialist leaning voters walked up to the edge and then decided paradise must be at the bottom of the abyss – Well JUMP IN YOU HALF-WITS and tell us how it ends! HAHA HAHA!!!
National Socialist Democrats always promise to pick the other guy’s pocket and give it to you. They prey on ignorance and greed, to win elections. So far, it has worked in many places, including Virginia. Virginia’s National Socialists promised to tax their way into prosperity, and are introducing and raising scores of fees and taxes.
And they gave themselves and very nice pay raise too.
The net result of these recent tax provisions (not just in Washington), with the exodus of the rich, will serve to create the US becoming a bunch of highly populated and taxed, third-world states vs a smaller group of highly productive states with relatively low taxes. This is civil war country.
No it will not. Just because a couple rich guys decided to move from CA or WA, obviously has nothing to do with recent tax laws there. Have you spoken with Howard Schultz, or has anyone, asked him why he moved. Or is planning to move. No you have not. You’re not even guessing, just shooting off your uniformed mouth.
Hey Ano
Just maybe you should read the letter Mr Starbucks wrote to the state WA leaders, on why he’s leaving. Remember too. He is a big lib.
Come on dustoff, get the basic facts right. Howard Schultz did not send a letter to Washington state officials about the new tax. Instead, he announced his move from Seattle to Miami in a LinkedIn post, where he did not directly mention the proposed millionaire’s tax. In the post, he framed the relocation as a personal decision tied to retirement, citing the appeal of South Florida’s sunshine and proximity to family. However, he did express hope that Washington will remain a place for business and entrepreneurship to thrive. Multiple sources confirm the announcement was made publicly online, not through official correspondence with state officials.
Don’t be stupid Ano. You know darn well who it was meant for.
One day after passing this foolish tax. He writes a letter to them.
A partial list of “rich” people who have either moved away from CA and WA or announced plans to do so:
Jeff Bezos
Elon Musk
Howard Schultz
Phil Mickleson
Mark Zuckerberg
Larry Page
Sergy Brin
Larry Ellison
Sylverster Stallone
Peter Thiel
David Sacks
What follows is a list of all the billionaires I have found who have announced plans to move from Texas and Florida to California and Washington over the past two years:
So what? Whatever their motivations are, you have no idea. Do some real research i.e., as to why and if in fact they have moved.
OK.. Mr know it all.
Tell us why they left.
I’ll wait
Well this is just more state nonsense. There is more than enough evidence that raising taxes seldom really recoups the money that states or nations think they will get by raising taxes whether they be wealth taxes or income taxes. The wealthy, such as Mr Schultz, can move, as Prof Turley has pointed out. It seems as if these states never go and talk to or survey the states where people move to after leaving.
I would suggest they do so. Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina all have done well with legal migrants from other states. Like a successful company, one should study successful states and learn from them. To repeat the same errors would suggest concrete thinking that is incapable of doing analysis.
They almost act like a suicidal individual who sees no options or pathways out of their depression or condition. The disease has eliminated the ability to widen one’s view and to see those options.
It would appear that they can never understand that so many of the wealthy create wealth for themselves and often for anyone else who wants to hook their wagon on to the success train.
One wonders if these states are blind, stupid, lazy, or just insane and collectively suicidal.
I suppose these states had been successful enough in the past when they had discipline and assets like beauty and wilderness, nice weather and beaches and competition from other states was minimal or ineffective but that is no longer true. It is going to be their continuing loss.
The taxation system of the individual 50 states coupled with the federal government’s is highly complex. You have no idea except for a few bombastic headlines you garnered, what the issues are pertaining to the high income taxpayers in the 50 states; more than you can possibly comprehend. Knowledge individual state tax laws, which you pretend to know intimately, is laughable. Suggest you stay away from the daily headlines. You are not an economist or a CPA. Your insight, or better said, the lack of it, is telling. Stick to what you know. Whatever that is.
Nope.
It’s your typical dems who spend like crazy. There is never enough cash to make them happy.
Geez dustoff are you just dumb or willfully ignorance. What about Trump’s spending? Since Donald Trump returned to office in January 2025, the U.S. national debt has increased by approximately $2.25 trillion as of January 2026, according to the Peter G. Peterson Foundation. This rise reflects the first 12 months of his second term, with the debt reaching $38.4 trillion by early January 2026. That beats anything the dem states have initiated. Initialed, not put in effect.
LOL.. Trump was still working from Biden spending you fool.
Donald Trump’s second-term agenda. The bill was signed into law by Trump on July 4, 2025.
President Biden last signed major stopgap spending bills in December 2024 and a $1.2 trillion funding package in March 2024 to keep the government operating. These followed earlier major spending legislation, including $1.7 trillion in late 2022 and various 2023 appropriations. A stopgap measure passed in Dec 2024 currently funds the government through March 14, 2025
@GEB
‘Texas, Florida, Georgia, Tennessee, South Carolina all have done well with legal migrants from other states.’
Not politically! But for Florida, those other laces are turning blue. These types of transplants all too often simply recreate what they left, and often they are privileged enough it doesn’t impact them.
I hate to be cynical, but we could simply be witnessing the creation pf new blue states; purple and red states should be fortifying themselves.
Saw this happen in my home state (now it’s California’s back yard), and a popular majority was not necessary to flip – just a population majority, even if just the voting segment of the population, through larger cities.
Could happen anywhere and will; this type of wealthier transplant doesn’t pay attention to much outside their sphere and doesn’t give a toss about the people in their new anchor point, generally.
Think: steamroller. It can happen quite quickly, and even the SAVE act (though critical for other reasons) won’t prevent it. In coastal cities aline we are talking about tens of millions of people; what is state of less than two million, for example, supposed to do in response?
Isn’t it unconstitutional to levy a tax on only certain individuals regardless of the income?
Yep Barb
But the dems have total control of the state along with their high court. Rules mean nothing to them.
Plus. Mr Starbucks himself is leaving for Florida.
Its in Turley’s opinion. Good catch dustoff.
It was on the news yesterday in WA state. .
So you’re saying you didn’t read Turley’s article?
Opps….
More than once… Pull I live in WA state.
Anything else.