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Last month, Washington State passed a capital gains tax aimed at the state’s ultra-wealthy. The tax is historic because Washington, despite its progressive reputation, until now had the worst tax code in the nation when it comes to fairness, behind Texas, Florida, and South Dakota.
A landmark 2018 report by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy found that the poor and working class pay 18 percent of their income in state and local taxes, while the ultra-wealthy only pay 3 percent.
“It’s so upside-down. . . . It’s completely out of step with our values,” Rep. Noel Frame, a champion for tax reform in Washington’s legislature, told me.
This “mismatch” is due to years of rigging by the state’s corporations and billionaires, including Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, the world’s richest person, and a group of corporate Democrats beholden to them.