The press conference on the steps of Washington’s Capitol Building was lowkey hostile. After Rep. Shaun Scott announced his bill to create a statewide payroll tax for high-earners, right-wing journalists peppered him with whataboutisms.
Scott introduced a small package of bills to make up for the cuts in Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill,” but the “Well Washington Fund” is the centerpiece. The payroll tax is similar to Seattle’s, which raked in more than $1 billion over its five-year existence and kept the city above water in the pandemic years.
Like Jumpstart, a payroll tax on Seattle employees earning $150,000 or more, Scott would tax US-based companies with more than 20 employees and $5 million in total income. The bill would put a tax on salaries above $125,000 a year. Scott compared it to the Medicare payroll tax that high-earning employees already pay. The only difference is this time, their employer is on the hook.
Scott says the tax could raise up to $3 billion each year. Of that, 51 percent will be distributed to “higher education, energy and economic development, food assistance via the supplemental nutrition assistance program (SNAP), and health care.” The remainder will pad the state’s general fund. We could use the money. Washington is facing a $390 million budget shortfall this year, and a $1.1 billion hole in the two year budget cycle in between 2027 and 2029.
The state also has big beautiful cuts to worry about—cuts to higher education, the environmental sector and clean energy, food stamps, and Medicare, $50 billion over the next decade in Washington alone, Scott said.
“The way for Washingtonians to fight back is to build a bolder Washington, a Washington that defends the programs that people depend on, while the other Washington defunds them,” Scott said. He mentioned his bill could be a step forward toward fixing Washington’s regressive tax code. At mention of the regressive tax code, a baby in the crowd wailed.
Still broken by Boeing’s departure, Republican lawmakers, immune to the screams of babes and vulnerable to the cries of the moneyed, worry businesses will pack up and leave.
“Do you understand that there is a likelihood that businesses could decide—Microsoft just said they would—to move jobs out of the state. Are you concerned about that?” asked right-wing influencer Brandi Kruse.
It’s a familiar refrain.
“We have seen many times in the state legislature, the threat of jobs being relocated hung over the head of state lawmakers,” Scott said. “[Boeing] shook the state legislature down for the single largest corporate welfare package that was granted by a state government in the history of the Republic. And then they moved the jobs anyway.”
Emily Vyhnanek, an advocate for tax and economic justice at the Budget and Policy Center, says when facing new taxes, it’s common for companies to threaten an out of state move. They also lobby. Last year, when Democrats introduced a suite of progressive taxation bills to alleviate a budget shortfall between $12 to $16 billion, six of the largest companies in Washington—including Amazon, Microsoft, and T-Mobile—poured $2.1 million into a political action committee opposing the bills.
But it’s an empty threat. It’s not that easy to pick up and leave our talent pool behind. Life here is pretty good, in-part because of state funded-infrastructure like public transportation, affordable early learning programs, and paid family and medical leave.
Vyhnanek said the 2019-era Workforce Education Investment was a prime example of the support that keeps people here.
“It includes a wide range of workforce development programs, including scholarships and career connections designed to encourage students in technical and community colleges to pursue degrees and certifications in high-demand fields,” Vyhnanek says.
Additionally, the tax burden on the top percent of companies wouldn’t be felt as hard because of Trump, according to Vyhnanek. The Big Beautiful Bill included $148 billion in tax breaks for ultra-wealthy companies including locals like Microsoft, Amazon, and Meta.
“The perspective that you are speaking from,” Scott said to Kruse, “frankly is very well represented in the state legislature by the major corporations that have spent millions over the years lobbying the state legislature, and they expect a return on investment.”
That well-represented point of view threatens the Well Washington Fund’s survival. That, and some residual tax shyness. Last session, Democrats pushed through billions in new taxes, including higher business taxes, more sales taxes, and a broadened nicotine tax this past session to balance a very unbalanced budget.
Similar legislation floundered then, too. Sen. Rebecca Saldaña, who is co-sponsoring Scott’s bill, introduced legislation that attempted to do the same thing as the Well Washington Fund—adopt a statewide high-earners payroll tax. Despite making it to the Senate and House floors, the bill sputtered out and died.
Scott believes this time it’ll be different. He’s had a few “promising” conversations. Additionally, he said part of why Saldaña’s bill failed was because legislators didn’t know the full economic impact of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and other federal funding cuts.
“Now that we have that policy making context…my hope is that there’s going to be an added sense of urgency,” Scott said.
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“Conservatives Already Hate It”
One doesn’t have to be a conservative to hate it. Being unemployed between contracts is enough to make any tech worker hate it. I’m glad I’m semi retired – it’s brutal out there.
If you are going to talk about the questions Brandi Kruse was asking you should also talk about Scott’s responses.
“Kruse: Do you think Amazon and Microsoft are a net good for our state?
Scott: Umm, say more about that, when you say that what do you mean?
Kruse: Do you think they contribute and add more value to our state than they detract?
Scott: I think that workers, were they to collectivize, could come up with something like Amazon on their own, but that Amazon has a very difficult time providing the value that you would like to see in reverse. In other words, I think that working people getting together, forming unions, coming out and lobbying for policies such as this, could create something that resembled an Amazon corporation without that added layer of exploitation. But I don’t know that Amazon’s leadership such as it is would be able to do something like that on its own.”
The level of arrogance and economic ignorance in that statement is off the charts.
“He mentioned his bill could be a step forward toward fixing Washington’s regressive tax code”
This proposal does nothing of the sort. If one wishes to address / fix our regressive tax code, then one needs to cut / eliminate said regressive taxes when introducing progressive taxes. I don’t understand why this is difficult for folks to grasp.
As for this tax, just stop fucking around – go after an income tax (given the income threshold of $125,000 Scott is obviously trying to backdoor a graduated income tax – just do that).
And one snide aside, since when did a $125,000 salary denote someone as rich in this – that barely puts you in the middle class
And one snide aside, since when did a $125,000 salary denote someone as rich in Seattle metro – that barely puts you in the middle class
“Still broken by Boeing’s departure, Republican lawmakers … worry businesses will pack up and leave.”
“It’s not that easy to pick up and leave our talent pool behind.”
So, a heavy industrial enterprise, totally dependent upon concentrating large numbers of highly skilled laborers into huge factories equipped with incredibly expensive (and often custom-installed) machine tools, was indeed able to leave — but it’s “not that easy” for anyone else to move? Like, companies where lots of folks already work from home? They can’t go? WTF?
(Of course, this generously assumes the Stranger knows anything at all about the current situation of Boeing in Washington state…)
“WA Gov. Bob Ferguson says his budget will rely on cuts, not taxes”
Seattle Times Dec. 3, 2025
I guess that MAGA Republican Governor of Washington State Bob Ferguson is one of the conservatives who hates Sean Scott’s payroll tax….
Boeing didn’t leave. Their executive offices left, and the company is worse off for that. They’ve had factories in other parts of the country for decades.
@8 with all due respect they built another plant in South Carolina after the last machinists strike and this month they just announced a $1B expansion to build another line there
https://investors.boeing.com/investors/news/press-release-details/2025/Boeing-South-Carolina-Breaks-Ground-on-787-Site-Expansion/default.aspx
Beyond that the tech jobs being targeted by this legislation are easily moveable as Covid demonstrated. Like Seattle these things will not happen immediately but what will happen is job growth will slow in our area as new positions and backfills are made in other locations. The hubris demonstrated by Scott when he says workers can create their own Amazon should erode any credibility he has on these types of issues..
“Progressive” = “stupid and naive”
Rep. Shaun Scott’s Statewide Payroll Tax to Fight Trump Cuts makes too much sense. It will never fly.