Letter: What if millionaires tax is lowered and gets us, too?

Published 1:30 am Thursday, March 12, 2026

As to the state Senate Bill 6346, the precedent-setting “millionaires tax,” I have fears, doubts and concerns. The big fear is that 5 or 10 years from now, the Legislature will say “We need more money so let’s lower the threshold down from $1 million”, i.e., “the door was cracked open by SB6346 so let’s swing it open further.”

A doubt is that the revenue collected by SB 6346 will go where Gov. Bob Ferguson has said it will go. In 2024, then-State Attorney General Ferguson’s office issued so-called “Chicken Checks” to residents from a $40 million settlement against canned chicken and tuna companies. I got one even though I didn’t qualify and never submitted a claim. Other checks went to wrong addresses, non-residents, unqualifyied recipients and deceased recipients. People I know that qualified never received anything. (I donated mine to a Christmas toy fund.)

A concern is that when I apply for Social Security in the future, effectively one of those monthly checks per year will go toward the certainly-to-be-revised state income tax.

Benjamin Franklin once wrote “in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes.”

Fabian Borowiecki

Everett