Washington business owners fear socialist millionaires tax is driving businesses out — and theyre next

SEATTLE—Business owners in Washington state are worried that the recently passed “” will drive economic activity out—and even target them next. 

“There’s a lot of fear and trepidation with what’s going on in our government when it comes to taxes,” Matt Humphrey, a Seattle barber who has locations in the Ballard and Roosevelt areas, told Fox News Digital. 

“This new millionaire’s tax is definitely going to impact us,” Humphrey said. “We’re afraid… they treat us a bit like an ATM when it comes to paying out taxes as a small business.” 

Steve Gordon, principal of Gordon Truck Centers, a truck dealer in Pacific, Washington, said he is concerned that the millionaires tax will eventually make its way to those who are not in the millionaire income bracket. 

“The income tax is the latest kind of battle that’s happened here recently,” Gordon said. “But while they frame it as it’s just a tax on millionaires, I mean that’s stacked on a whole bunch of other taxes and there’s nothing to keep it from expanding to regular citizens. And I think a lot of regular folks realize that what might be just for millionaires today supposedly will be coming for them later as they broaden that tax base.” 

Washington state Democrats last month passed the “millionaires tax,” which Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed March 30. It’s the state’s first-ever income tax, celebrated by progressives and socialists and opposed by conservatives; the Wall Street Journal editorial board called it a “con” after its passage that will “inevitably capture the middle class.”

The new tax will impose a earning more than $1 million each year. T tax applies to any money earned after the first $1 million of someone’s annual income. It will take effect on Jan. 1, 2028, with the first payments due in April 2029, KOMO News reported. 

“Adoption of the historic Millionaires Tax makes our tax system more fair, and means free meals for K-12 students, the largest tax break in state history for small businesses, eliminating the sales tax for baby diapers, and sending a check to nearly 500,000 working families to make life more affordable,” Ferguson said at the time.

His office touted that the new tax “sends significant revenue back to Washington families and small business owners.”

But not everyone is thrilled.

“They’re all concerned. Everybody’s concerned,” radio host Ari Hoffman told Fox News Digital.

“And it doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, because as I mentioned before with regards to Amazon, if you’re a barber and you were reliant on the Amazonians as your customers, now you don’t have them anymore. You don’t have a barbershop anymore. There were a lot of places that opened up in South Lake Union where Amazon was specifically for Amazon, and they had to close shortly thereafter.”

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