‘They treat us like animals’: Chamber leader says WA’s millionaires income tax is ‘a trick’

Mike Sotelo, president of the Ethnic Chamber of Commerce Coalition and the Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of King County, is speaking out against the proposed income tax on millionaires in Washington.

Sotelo joined “The Jake and Spike Show” on KIRO Newsradio to discuss a recent op-ed in which he argued the tax would hurt small businesses and accused state lawmakers of “outright lying” to the public.

“This right here is nothing more than a trick,” Sotelo said. “They’re saying it’s a millionaire’s tax, no, it’s not. It’s going to affect all of us, and it will seriously impact wanting to do business in Washington. It’s already the most unbusiness-friendly place we can be.

“Right now, it would be almost impossible for anybody to be able to come into Washington,” Sotelo continued. “What’s interesting is that the only option I had when I came to Seattle was to get a job. If I wanted to eat, I had to get a job. Now the system is set up so that, honestly, if you don’t want to have a job, if you don’t want to contribute a taxpayer dollar, you don’t have to; you actually can sometimes make more money not working than working. Which is destructive, it’s destructive to the American dream.”

Sotelo accuses lawmakers of ignoring communities until election season

Sotelo compared Governor Bob Ferguson and Senator Jamie Pedersen to zoo visitors who look at caged animals and leave, saying they treat people in Washington the same way.

“The way I see Bob Ferguson, Jamie Peterson, is that when you go in, and you talk to them, they’re smiling, they’ve got this grin on their face, they’re shaking your hand, they’re saying, ‘I hear you. I got you.’ No, they don’t. They’re outright lying to you. Their agenda is already set,” Sotelo said. “In many cases, Ferguson and the rest of these clowns, what they want is for us to stay down right where we are.

“I always regard Ferguson as the kind of guy that when he goes to the Woodland Park Zoo, he looks at the cages, he reads the plaque, and then he leaves, he’s felt like he’s done his thing,” Sotelo continued. “That’s how these politicians treat us. They treat us like animals. The only time we ever see these guys is two months before an election because they want to take a picture with a minority. Then we never see them again.”

Watch the full discussion in the video above.

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