Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP)

Washington

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Washington Millionaires’ Tax, Expanded Working Families Tax Credit Make Tax Code Fairer

• By Marco Guzman, Dylan Grundman O'Neill

The Washington legislature has approved a new "millionaires' tax," a 9.9 percent tax on income over $1 million. The bill, which makes significant investments in public education and child care, will also expand the Working Families Tax Credit – the state’s EITC – to reach an additional 460,000 households.

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State Rundown 3/4: Budget Realities Set In

• By ITEP Staff

As many state legislative sessions near or cross the halfway point, lawmakers are facing tough choices.

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State Rundown 2/19: Necktie (NCTI) Offers a Way Out of a Knotty Situation

• By ITEP Staff

State lawmakers are grappling with a range of challenges as their fiscal outlooks deteriorate, federal tax enforcement wanes (after the Trump administration cut the IRS workforce by 25 percent), and a rewritten federal tax code sends states scrambling to decide what changes they might want to make in their own codes.

The Cascadia Advocate: Five More Claims Against the Million-Dollar Earners’ Tax That Don’t Check Out: Debunking Republicans’ Opposition to SB 6346

• By ITEP Staff

Republican legislators yesterday leveled a barrage of familiar arguments against the Senate Democratic majority’s proposal to create a million-dollar earners’ tax. While these charges have been made before, repetition does not make an argument true. Read more.

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What Did 2025 State Tax Changes Mean for Racial and Economic Equity?

• By Brakeyshia Samms

The results are a mixed bag, with some states enacting promising policies that will improve tax equity and others going in the opposite direction.

Testimony: ITEP’s Sarah Austin Urges Washington House Finance Committee to Decouple from Venture Capital Tax Break

• By Sarah Austin

The prepared testimony below was delivered by ITEP Senior Analyst Sarah Austin to the Washington House Finance Committee on January 27, 2026. For more on the tax break in question, check out our October 2025 brief.  Chair Berg, Vice Chair Street, and members of the House Finance Committee, My name is Sarah Austin, I’m a […]

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State Rundown 1/22: Cautious Tone Noticeable in Most Statehouses

• By ITEP Staff

Most states are adopting a very cautious approach so far this year as legislators begin their sessions and governors make their annual addresses, thanks to ongoing economic uncertainty and federal retrenchment.

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States Can Push Back Against Reckless Federal Tax Policy. Here’s How.

• By Aidan Davis, Wesley Tharpe

They should take steps to protect and boost their own revenues. And they should take a second look at their own tax cuts.

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State Rundown 1/7: New Year, New Opportunities for Progressive Revenue

• By ITEP Staff

As we kick off a new year, several states are facing revenue shortfalls. Some lawmakers are approaching the challenge with sustainable and equitable solutions.

Washington Governor’s Office: Governor Ferguson Announces Support for Millionaires’ Tax

• By ITEP Staff

Washington ranks next to last for fairness and equality in our tax system — meaning those who make the least pay much larger shares of their income than those with the most resources. Washington families whose income is in the bottom 20% pay 13.8% of their total income in taxes, while those whose income is […]

HeraldNet: Editorial: ‘Millionaires’ tax’ can deliver fairness, revenue

January 5, 2026

We should all hope we’d be in the financial position where we’d have to pay Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed “millionaires’ tax,” because — as the name implies — it would levy a tax on annual income above $1 million, meaning we’d be doing pretty well. Read more.

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State Rundown 12/17: Tax Policy ‘Naughty or Nice’ List Has Late Entrants

• By ITEP Staff

With a little over a week left, some states are solidifying their spots on the tax policy “naughty or nice” list.

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State Rundown 12/3: Property Tax Cuts and Deficits

• By ITEP Staff

States are increasingly facing difficult choices as revenues stagnate and deficits come clearer into focus.

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State and Local Policymakers Can Resist Austerity Even Amid Historic Federal Retreat

• By Kamolika Das

The progressivity of the federal tax code has been waning. State and local policymakers should respond by protecting their revenue bases, promoting equity, and safeguarding vulnerable communities from harmful budget cuts. 

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The Wealth Proceeds Tax: A Simple Way for States to Tax the Wealthy

• By Sarah Austin, Carl Davis

Taxing the proceeds generated by wealth through a new Wealth Proceeds Tax is a simple way for states to raise billions in new revenue and improve the fairness of their tax systems.

Los Angeles Times: Corporate Tax Breaks Are Exploding the Federal Deficit, but Who Gets the Benefits?

October 15, 2025

The question is who stands to gain most from the tax policymaking in Washington — corporations, their shareholders and their executives, most of whom don’t have to worry about whether cutting off Obamacare subsidies will leave them unable to afford healthcare, or the millions of Americans for whom the subsidies can often spell the difference […]

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State Rundown 10/1: State and Local Governments Doing the Opposite of Shutting Down

• By ITEP Staff

State and local officials are staying very busy by considering a dizzying amount of reversals.

Rep. Steve Cohen: Congressmen Cohen and Beyer and Senator Wyden Introduce the Billionaire Income Tax Act

• By ITEP Staff

WASHINGTON – Congressmen Steve Cohen (TN-9) and Don Beyer (VA-8) and Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon today introduced bicameral Billionaire Income Tax Act bills in an effort to establish a level of fairness in federal taxation and prevent millionaires and billionaires (and one prospective trillionaire) from avoiding significant liability. The measure would tax wealth gains as […]

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State Rundown 9/18: Lawmakers Confront Revenue Loss from Federal Policy Changes

• By ITEP Staff

Some states are trying to avoid revenue loss while others are welcoming it and doubling down.

Wall Street Journal: Blue States Hunt for Ways to Wring More Taxes From the Wealthy

August 14, 2025

A growing number of blue cities and states across the country, from Washington state to Rhode Island, are looking at ways to wring more revenue from their richest taxpayers.

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Trump’s Tax Law Clobbers State Budgets. Now’s the Time to Prepare.

• By ITEP Staff

The Trump megabill hands the richest 1% a trillion-dollar windfall while gutting funding for health care, education, and disaster relief — leaving communities to pick up the pieces. State and local leaders must step up, tax the wealthiest fairly, and safeguard the essentials that keep America healthy, educated, and safe.

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State Tax Action in 2025: Amid Uncertainty, Tax Cuts and New Revenue

• By Aidan Davis, Neva Butkus, Marco Guzman

Federal policy choices on tariffs, taxes, and spending cuts will be deeply felt by all states, which will have less money available to fund key priorities. This year some states raised revenue to ensure that their coffers were well-funded, some proceeded with warranted caution, and many others passed large regressive tax cuts that pile on to the massive tax cuts the wealthiest just received under the federal megabill.

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State Rundown 7/8: State Tax Cuts Continue Despite Federal Megabill Passing

• By ITEP Staff

The last states are wrapping up legislative sessions, and some are crossing the finish line with major income tax cuts.

New York Times: States Brace for Added Burdens of Trump’s Tax and Spending Law

July 7, 2025

The ink is not even dry on the far-reaching domestic policy law that President Trump signed on Friday, and already state governments are bracing for impact as Washington shifts much of the burden for health care, food assistance and other programs onto them.

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State Rundown 6/25: The Numbers Don’t Lie, State Budget Edition

• By ITEP Staff

Many states are reaching their end-of-June budget deadlines, and major tax policy changes look to have big implications as states are forced, per federal policy, to do more with less.