Ojas Kandhare

i'm not a millionaire (yet), so why did i vote against the millionaires tax? here are 5 reasons 👇 1. everything about this tax is dishonest and unconstitutional: WA’s constitution treats income as property, which must be taxed uniformly for everyone. you can’t tax specific incomes a higher rate. but they are calling it an excise tax on the activity of receiving income so that it’s *technically* not an income tax. the right way to introduce this tax would be to have a constitutional amendment for it, but WA has voted against a state income tax like 10 times now, so that wouldn’t have worked. so they chose to disregard the constitution and just force it through. 2. the way it's worded on the ballot is intentionally deceptive: voting yes on i645 would repeal the unconstitutional millionaires tax, but the ballot makes it sound like if you vote yes, you want to cut funding for public education and healthcare. that’s a lie, voting yes won’t cut any funding right now because the tax doesn’t even take effect until 2028! it's like saying you’re voting to lose $1 million by not buying a lottery ticket. there’s probably thousands of people who thought they were doing a good thing by voting no because they were just voting for better education and healthcare bc of the wording on the ballot. deceiving voters is evil and you should vote against it. 3: it won't just stop at millionaires. once the income tax is established, they can lower the threshold as much as they want. today it's $1 million. there's no guarantee it'll stay there forever. politicians have every incentive to expand the tax base once they get used to spending the revenue. some of them are already talking about bringing the threshold down to $250k. don’t trust the government. 4: i generally dislike all the "tax the rich" stuff. most ppl supporting this tax want it because they’re resentful of millionaires and rich people. it’s a tax driven by hate and jealousy. i don't think becoming successful should make you a target. i'd much rather live in a society that encourages ppl to become wealthy than a society that treats success and wealth as something to punish. and 5, this is the most obvious one: capital flight. after sf, seattle is the most important US city for ai progress. some of the most important people in tech: founders, venture capitalists, angel investors, and even successful business owners who are not in tech have made WA what it is today. when you tax these people you’ll drive them out, and they will take their investments and businesses with them, which will make all of us worse off. if you're eligible to vote in WA and haven’t voted yet, consider voting YES on i645. you can still return your ballot at an official drop box until 8 PM tonight!