We love Washington.
It’s dwelling for us, and for generations earlier than us. It’s the place we’ve constructed our household, our companies and our lives. It’s additionally been dwelling to a number of the most modern firms and entrepreneurial thinkers on the earth.
That’s why we’re talking up. We’re partnering with the Citizen Motion Protection Fund, former state Legal professional Basic Rob McKenna and former Washington Supreme Courtroom Justice Phil Talmadge to problem Senate Bill 6346, generally known as the “millionaires tax” — an unlawful earnings tax. We’re the lead plaintiffs within the case.
This resolution will not be about us personally. It’s rooted in what we imagine creates robust communities: alternative, accountable development, and the flexibility for individuals to construct one thing significant for each themselves and others.
By means of our companies, we’ve got a novel view into how persons are investing in Washington, each commercially and personally. We see when tasks transfer ahead, and we see once they don’t. Not too long ago, we’ve seen tasks paused or canceled as funding selections shift. It’s taking place in actual time.
We’re additionally seeing one thing else: individuals leaving. Mates, enterprise house owners, and households making the choice that it’s merely simpler to construct and develop some place else. When that occurs, it doesn’t simply have an effect on a small group. It impacts jobs, native funding, and the long-term well being of the communities all of us rely upon.
Washington has traditionally had a aggressive benefit. The absence of an earnings tax, mixed with a robust financial system and unbelievable high quality of life, made it among the best locations within the nation to start out and develop a enterprise. That atmosphere is altering.
For many enterprise house owners, what’s reported as “earnings” isn’t cash sitting in a private account. It’s capital reinvested again into the enterprise — hiring, new tasks, higher methods and the flexibility to climate harder seasons. In stronger years, that earnings is what builds stability and future alternative. Insurance policies like this threat disproportionately impacting small and rising companies, the place that reinvestment is important to survival and development.
Our life seems to be lots like many Washington households. We cherish time with family and friends, supporting our youngsters of their actions, and spending as a lot time as we will exterior — tenting, using bikes and taking full benefit of the whole lot this state has to supply.
We imagine in contributing to the communities we’re a part of. We imagine in accountable authorities. And we imagine in defending the atmosphere and pure magnificence that make Washington so particular. Development and stewardship go hand in hand.
What considerations us is the course Washington goes in. Growing layers of taxation, particularly when enacted with no direct vote of the individuals, mixed with a scarcity of clear accountability on how these funds might be used, create uncertainty. Over time, that uncertainty slows funding, pushes individuals and companies away, and finally reduces the very alternative these insurance policies goal to create.
If you happen to suppose this doesn’t have an effect on you as a result of it targets a small group, it is going to. When capital leaves, alternative follows. Fewer companies began. Fewer jobs created. Slower development throughout the board.
We’re not doing this only for ourselves. We’re doing this for our youngsters, and for yours. For the following technology’s potential to construct a life right here, to take dangers, to start out companies, and to create one thing of their very own.
Our involvement on this case is about defending the long-term well being of the place we name dwelling. It’s about maintaining Washington a spot the place constructing remains to be potential, the place alternative is accessible, and the place exhausting work can flip into one thing significant.
We’re not strolling away from this state. We’re standing up for it.
We imagine Washington can proceed to be a spot of innovation, alternative and accountable development, however provided that we shield the circumstances that made it that approach within the first place.
