Some states are reviving a push to tax the rich
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Chuck Collins figures he won life’s lottery by inheriting vast sums of money through his great-grandfather Oscar Mayer’s processed meat company, but rather than fight to protect every dime Collins has helped push to hike taxes on the ultrarich like himself.
He was successful in helping implement a higher tax in Massachusetts on income over $1 million, and the idea has already taken hold in a handful of other blue states, including California, Maryland, Minnesota and New Jersey. Lawmakers in the state of Washington, which doesn’t have an income tax, could send the governor this week a measure that would impose one on million-dollar earners.
“I think people are waking up to the harms of these inequalities,” said Collins, a founding member of the group Patriotic Millionaires, which calls for higher taxes on the country’s super affluent. “Including people who have wealth, who say, if we keep going down this road, it ain’t going to end well for anybody.”
Since a state Supreme Court decision nearly a century ago shot down an income tax, Washington has stood out as being one of few states controlled by Democrats without a tax on wages or salaries — though it does tax certain investment proceeds.
https://apnews.com/article/millionaires-tax-states-democrats-f2562529db02531d1bd30ee2312da649
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