I was digging into the state data on the new millionaire tax (SB 6346—the 9.9% tax on household income over $1M) from the Repatriate Washington Policy Research Institute. There’s been a lot of talk about how state tax policies hit Eastern WA vs. Western WA, so I wanted to see what the actual numbers look like for our region.
Turns out, every single legislative district in the Spokane area is listed as a "Robust Recipient." That means our region ends up with a pretty big net financial gain because the money coming back in for public programs, tax credits, and local investments easily outweighs what’s collected locally.
Here’s how the districts break down:
LD 3 (Central Spokane):
Millionaire households: ~103 (about 0.06% of the district)
Estimated tax paid: $17.6M
Economic benefit coming back: $84.2M
Net gain: +$38.5M
Votes: All 3 reps (Riccelli, Hill, Ormsby) voted YES.
LD 4 (Spokane Valley / Liberty Lake):
Millionaire households: ~191
Estimated tax paid: $31.2M
Economic benefit coming back: $80.8M
Net gain: +$22.7M
Votes: All 3 reps (Christian, Schmidt, Chase) voted NO.
LD 6 (Spokane / Cheney):
Millionaire households: ~243
Estimated tax paid: $42.1M
Economic benefit coming back: $91.3M
Net gain: +$18.8M
Votes: All 3 reps (Holy, Volz, Graham) voted NO.
LD 7 (North / Rural Spokane & Stevens Co.):
Millionaire households: ~78
Estimated tax paid: $22.8M
Economic benefit coming back: $87.7M
Net gain: +$35.6M
Votes: All 3 reps (Short, Engell, Abell) voted NO.
LD 9 (South Spokane / Whitman / Pullman):
Millionaire households: ~97
Estimated tax paid: $19.4M
Economic benefit coming back: $102.1M
Net gain: +$48.7M
Votes: All 3 reps (Schoesler, Dye, Schmick) voted NO.
A few things that jumped out at me:
Barely anyone here actually pays it: Out of roughly 157k people per district, we’re talking about 78 to 243 households in any given area. Over 99.8% of us pay literally $0 toward this.
Spokane is a net winner on paper: Since most of the state's top earners live on the West Side, money gets pulled from wealthier King/Snohomish districts and flows east into our local economy.
The vote split is interesting: LD3 reps voted for it, while the reps in LD4, 6, 7, and 9 all voted against it—even though their districts stand to get anywhere from $18M to $48M+ in net funding.
What do you all think? Does seeing these numbers change how you view the policy, or do you think the economic modeling isn't telling the whole story?
