Elan retweeted
Your ballot is already in your hands. What you do with it in the next few days decides whether Seattle becomes the highest-taxed city in America. Initiative 645 repeals the new 9.9 percent income tax. Vote yes.
Here is what is at stake. When this tax takes effect, the combined top rate in Seattle passes 18 percent, above New York City, the highest in the country. The tax is written so the corporation pays nothing and the small business owner pays everything. Amazon is exempt. The sneaker store, the restaurant, the clinic, and the dealership are not.
Seattle's taxes have already tripled since 2013, to 2.8 billion dollars, while the schools, the homelessness system, and the police force got worse. A former governor said it plainly: we do not have an income problem, we have a spending problem. Before one more dollar is taken, this state should audit what it already collects and what it bought.
And this tax is only the beginning. Its author says in the open that he wants a broader income tax. Others want the line dropped from a million dollars to $250,000 a household. The legislature refused to lock the line where it stands.
The campaign to keep this tax has raised ten million dollars, most of it from the public employee unions. The owners and working families who will pay it were never asked. On this ballot, you are being asked.
Stand up for the small business owners who sign the leases and meet the payrolls, and for every family that pays at the register. Return your ballot this week. Vote yes on Initiative 645. Then we audit all of it.
The full story: michaelrhatch.substack.com/p…
Elan retweeted
Microsoft just offered a quarter of its workforce the door, Windows and Copilot included. Olympia is writing a 2028 budget on 21,500 million-dollar households, a lot of them paid in vesting stock.
Those households are the forecast, the spending is coming no matter what. Next up, you.
seattletimes.com/business/mi…
"Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, or roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the company tries to control its head count while avoiding layoffs."
Am I misunderstanding this or is the greater Seattle area cooked 😳
Ya’ll WA state is not healthy. The business climate is unstable. We need a correction badly and quickly.
There is a major shake-up at Microsoft.
The Seattle Times reported the company is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees — roughly a quarter of its workforce — in an effort to avoid more layoffs.
Updates here: mynorthwest.com/money/micros…
Elan retweeted
If you want less housing that costs more, create long permitting wait times.
Governments don’t need to create costly new programs to subsidize housing.
They need to stop spending years deciding whether Americans are allowed to build.
Elan retweeted
Well, anyway, good morning. ☀️
Washington, I know this ballot is confusing as hell. And that is on purpose. Politicians in our state are trying to confuse you becuase they don't believe in democracy.
The only reason we get to vote on this is that enough brave people stood up and demanded it. Otherwise, the governor would have signed this into law like the King of England, treating us like serfs with no rights and no power.
Well, I won't stand for being tricked, lied to, and treated like a child.
Just to be crystal clear, if you vote "Yes," it will repeal the illegal income tax.
It will not reduce funding to schools or human services because the tax doesn't go into effect until 2029. So we aren't taking anything away.
Starbucks left because of this. Microsoft has threatened to move jobs out of state. Amazon now employs nearly 15,000 fewer people in Seattle than at its peak. Seattle is second to last in the number of VC deals that closed in Q3.
Holding a small number of companies and rich people hostage, when they have options, is a foolish strategy that is already backfiring spectacularly.
The solution?
Reduce taxes on businesses and income. Why even tax people under 25 at all? Give families with children a HUGE tax credit. Make this state an incredible place to do business and have a family. Encourage entrepreneurs to come here. Get startups, agencies, and smart, motivated people to build here.
We can increase overall state revenue if more people make stuff, employ people, and create more value for everyone here. Not by chasing them out of the state and creating a hostile environment for business.
Remember this: governments and taxes don't make jobs. Entrepreneurs do.
Elan retweeted
seattletimes.com/business/mi…
"Microsoft is offering buyouts to about 60,000 employees, or roughly a quarter of its workforce, as the company tries to control its head count while avoiding layoffs."
Am I misunderstanding this or is the greater Seattle area cooked 😳
Elan retweeted
I'm now considerably more open to the rumor going around that Putin bluffed Elon with a threat to attack his satellites and Musk folded like a cheap suit.
Elan retweeted
The non-partisan tax foundation found that high income taxes hurt growth. It’s critical that Colorado voters reject Amendment 87 which would make Colorado the 9th highest taxed state. It’s not to late to vote No on amendment 87
States with no individual income tax (Florida, Texas, Tennessee, Nevada, and others) consistently rank among the strongest gainers, while states with the highest top rates (California at 13.3 percent, New York at 10.9 percent, and New Jersey at 10.75 percent) dominate the list of largest losers.
Explore the data: hubs.ly/Q04C95Xm0
Elan retweeted
I have 5 clients, this year that have left Washington for Arizona/Nevada.....why?
They save $5,000,000 or more for their estate, if they die in a different location. Why?
Washington's Estate tax is so high.
Now ask yourselves. Do we benefit by these people leaving the state with the tax base they have created?
Elan retweeted
McConnell in WSJ on Trump’s relationship with Putin & the upcoming “lame-duck” session of Congress: “Mr. Trump has high hopes for a lame-duck legislative agenda, including the one-time defense spending I’ve urged the administration instead to build into full-year appropriations. Passing this agenda will require working with Republicans who know the difference between the good guys and the bad guys. Ending the obeisance to Mr. Putin may be table stakes for the end-of-year legislation. The president should plan accordingly.” wsj.com/opinion/coddling-put…
Elan retweeted
Ok folks—at what point does the mainstream media stop being afraid to discuss this man’s incredibly conspicuous mental deterioration. Imagine if any other President had posted a completely demented and unhinged 1300 word (!!!) word vomit rant about BILL MAHER of all topics. WTAF?
Elan retweeted
2/ Russian forces have made effectively zero net gains in 2026 at the cost of over 40,000 casualties per month since July and around 458 casualties for every square kilometer of territory that Russian forces lost.
Elan retweeted
We're in an UGLY stage, America.
This is one of the most comical ads this election cycle. Yes, Americans are chatting at the grocery store about how they can’t buy groceries because their tax dollars “go to Israel” 🙄 😂 nevermind the fact that Israel has invested 100% of military aid in the U.S. economy since Oct 7, and has also purchased over $1 billion *additional* in arms, according to DoD. Federal military aid is also prohibited from being spent on anything other than U.S. arms, so the line about healthcare is even more comical. El Sayed and his Islamist fans like Cenk Uygur want and expect American voters to be so stupid they never check.
Not only is this ad insane, conspiratorial, and antisemitic — it is also flat out false. El Sayed isn’t for the people of Michigan, he isn’t even for America. He is for the Muslim Brotherhood.
Elan retweeted
BREAKING: Haley Stevens just directly called out Abdul El-Sayed.
“I don’t want to debate who’s the enemy of the United States. It’s very clear that Iran is.”
Elan retweeted
Who and what is the unelected PDC that just changed the donation rules in the middle of an election?
The Public Disclosure Commission is supposed to be Washington's campaign finance referee: enforce the donation limits and make sure voters know who's paying for what.
Five commissioners. Nobody voted for any of them.
• J. Robert Leach, Chair (appointed by Gov. Inslee, 2023)
• Douglass North (appointed by Gov. Inslee, 2023)
• Matthew Segal (appointed by Gov. Ferguson, 2026)
• Teebah Alsaleh (appointed by Gov. Ferguson, 2026)
• Lisa Kremer (appointed by Gov. Ferguson, 2026)
State law has one safeguard: no more than 3 of the 5 can be from the same political party.
My team checked earlier and all 5 appear to have pulled the Democratic ballot in the presidential primary.
In a state where one party has held the governor's office for over 40 years, there's no watchdog watching the watchdog.
So 12 days before Election Day, the PDC suddenly stopped enforcing the late-money cap on PAC giving. Candidate limits still apply. The big PAC checks are now open season, and nobody writes bigger PAC checks than the public unions trying to protect a Supreme court made up of a majority of Democrat governor appointees…
Even Stephen Paolini, a consultant on Democratic and Supreme Court campaigns, told the Seattle Times: "I think it's horrible timing….It's like we've all been playing an entire football season under one set of rules and then the night before the Super Bowl," a key rule is changed, he said.’
An October surprise from the PDC:
WA lifts caps on big-dollar campaign spending days before midterms seattletimes.com/seattle-new… via @seattletimes
Elan retweeted
I met Haley Stevens today. I thought she was charming. I'm sure we disagree on much. But I think it's pretty obvious, she'd be putting Michigan away right now if she won the primary.
cnn.com/2026/10/25/politics/…
