JOHN CURLEY

‘It’s sort of insulting’: Brian Heywood says lawmakers can’t keep their house in order amid income tax push

Feb 28, 2026, 5:01 AM

The “millionaire tax” has drawn mass criticism as it’s made its way to the House, including 61,000 members of Let’s Go Washington, led by Brian Heywood.

Heywood discussed the proposed bill on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio, stating that Washington’s lawmakers continuously push toward raising taxes, but none of the money spent has been beneficial in fixing the state’s problems.

“The measure of success in the state seems to be how much of taxpayers’ money you spend, not whether it was actually effective,” Heywood said. “There’s no accountability here, and it means they’re not serious. It’s sort of insulting that they’re saying we don’t have enough money. We need more of yours when they can’t keep their house in order.”

Heywood retold a story about a Senate hearing where tens of thousands of people opposed the “millionaire tax.” The massive increase in viewership was then labeled as fraud, with claims that Let’s Go Washington was using robots to push a narrative.

“We got 61,000 people who signed in on the legislator system to voice their opinion against the tax,” Heywood said. “It was so shocking to them. Normally, if they get 500, that’s a lot; if they get 10,000, that’s a big deal. Immediately, the response was, ‘Well, it must be bots.’ In fact, we created a not a bot organization, so when people signed in today, we had almost 1,000 people sign in as ‘not a bot.’

“There are people who are so pissed off that people sign in multiple times, so there were duplicates in the count,” he continued. “In the system, there’s nothing to completely verify your ID; that’s how they set it up. So, they’ve set it up, probably about as strong as our voter IDs on the regular system. Then suddenly, these people who don’t want voter ID were screaming, ‘Oh my gosh, there’s duplicates.’ They used the word fraud to try to get rid of the trust in the system.”

Despite his skepticism, Heywood believes the opposition’s efforts have already made an impact on lawmakers.

“So last week, three Democrats changed their vote, and that I promise you would not have happened if we hadn’t had 61,000 people signing in,” he said. “It scared them, they had to do it so they don’t get hit so hard in the primary. I know at least 100,000 people, unique individuals who signed in this time on the list that signed in as opposed to that, that’s not small. I think it could peel off some of the Democrats. There’s a small chance that we could push this back a little bit. Granted, I got to smoke a little bit of crack to totally believe that.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

Listen to John Curley weekday afternoons from 3 – 7 p.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

John Curley on KIRO Newsradio 97.3 FM
  • listen to tom and curleyTune in to KIRO Newsradio weekdays at 3pm for The John Curley Show.

John Curley

John Curley

Ramaswamy...

John Curley Show

‘What does it say about the character of the person?’: Curley questions Ramaswamy ad featuring opponent’s mother

KIRO host John Curley is questioning what a recent campaign ad said about Ohio gubernatorial candidate Vivek Ramaswamy.

3 hours ago

Follow @https://twitter.com/jcurleyshow...

John Curley Show

‘They didn’t allow my voice to be heard’: Bainbridge Island Review subscriber cancels after paper rejects his I-638 op-ed

Brian Anderson, a longtime Bainbridge Island Review subscriber, canceled his subscription after he said the newspaper declined to publish his piece.

8 hours ago

Microsoft (1)...

John Curley Show

‘A pattern in this state of intimidation’: Let’s Go Washington founder urges Microsoft to join income tax fight

Brian Heywood, founder of Let’s Go Washington, wants Microsoft and other major Washington employers to help repeal the state’s new income tax.

10 hours ago

Councilmember Reagan Dunn tax income...

John Curley Show

‘I fear it’s going to be close’: Councilmember Reagan Dunn predicts WA’s income tax will narrowly survive

King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn expects Washington voters to narrowly keep the state’s new tax on income above $1 million.

2 days ago

Seattle Amazon move wilson...

John Curley Show

‘Poof, they go across the bridge’: Curley warns Seattle after Amazon threatens to move delivery operations out of New York City

John Curley warns Seattle against relying heavily on Amazon after the company threatened to move delivery operations out of New York City over proposed rules.

3 days ago

wa income tax ken jennings...

John Curley Show

‘You did a great job reading the script’: Curley takes aim at Ken Jennings’ arguments against repealing WA’s income tax

John Curley critiques Ken Jennings' ad against Initiative 645 on WA's income tax, highlighting key arguments for voters.

5 days ago

‘It’s sort of insulting’: Brian Heywood says lawmakers can’t keep their house in order amid income tax push