An expanded wealth tax proposal

Plus rent control and better warranties for used cars

The 2023 Legislature took on a populist flavor in Week 2. Today we’re looking at proposals to tax billionaires, limit landlords’ power to raise rents, and discourage used car dealers from selling you a jalopy that expires on the freeway a few weeks later.

Sen. Noel Frame’s wealth tax is an expanded version of the bill we wrote about a couple of years ago when she introduced it as chair of the House Finance Committee.

It’s still a 1 percent property tax on “intangible financial assets.” Think stocks, bonds, etc. (Less ephemeral signifiers of wealth such as lakefront houses, yachts, and vineyards in Walla Walla are already taxed. )

Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle

But this year’s version lowers the threshold for taxable fat cats from $1 billion in such wealth to a mere $250 million. That would raise an estimated $3 billion per year for the state by extending the number of taxpayers from about 100 to roughly 700. So we’re still very much in Robin Hood country. Frame, D-Seattle, casts it as a way to get the ultra-wealthy to pay their fair share in a tax system that falls lightly on the rich and heavily on the poor.