It’s expensive to live anywhere nowadays, but some places seem to go out of their way to cost more. California is the obvious example, but did you know Washington State is making a play for the king of costliness? If you’re living here, you’ve probably felt it, but let’s give some facts to validate those feelings, shall we?
Here are Five Fast Facts on Washington State imitating California:
- ⛽ Gas Prices, Part 1 - We’ve already established that gas prices are high everywhere…but they’re worse here than almost everywhere else, and for good reason. The cap-and-trade program that kicked in back in 2021 is adding something like $0.45 per gallon of gas in extra taxes. We won’t say we told you so (even though we could)...
- 📈 Gas Prices, Part 2 - You can easily see the effects in gas prices - the national average is already painfully high at around $3.86/gal (as of this writing), but here in the Evergreen State it’s $5.05! Unfortunately, this hits hardest for people who are middle- and lower-income. Why is it always the case that the little people are hit hardest?
- 💰 Capital Gains - The Seattle City Council is looking to add a new 2% capital gains tax on top of the 7% it already set just two years ago. It brought in big tax bucks before, so it’ll do it again…but what does your Paycheck say about that?
- 🌳 General Tax Rates - We have the fourth highest combined state and local tax rate, at 9.4%. So you really can’t avoid The Taxman, unless you want to live like Swiss Family Robinson.
- 🔨 Regressiveness - We also have the most regressive tax setup in the country. This means that the top end of income earners pays the smallest (relative) amount in taxes while the lowest income earners pay the most. Here, the top 1% of income earners pays only 3% of the total tax burden, while the bottom 20% of income earners pays almost 18% of total tax burden. Guess who gets hammered (and not the good kind)?
🔥Bottom line: You can see the theme here, we’re sure. It’s an amazing place to live, yes! But it’s also one of the most expensive in the country, thanks to the tax-happy lawmakers we’ve got. If we want to follow California down this road, we can already see where it goes. On the other hand, if we want to get this cost of living under control, it’s going to have to start with new representatives who make different choices.
What do you think needs to be done to make life less expensive here?
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