‘They are leaving’: Curley rips lawmakers behind millionaires’ tax, says the rich don’t trust WA government

Former Washington Governors Gary Locke and Christine Gregoire, both Democrats, have publicly called out the state’s spending in recent months, with Locke warning there is “no budget discipline” among lawmakers in Olympia and Gregoire making similar remarks, noting that the budget was $33 billion when she left office but has since ballooned to $80 billion.

KIRO host John Curley argued that lawmakers in Olympia are deluding themselves if they think the millionaires’ tax will solve the budget, saying the state’s wealthy residents don’t trust how their money is being spent and are already making plans to leave, taking their tax revenue with them. He compared it to driving past a nearby store to save money at one farther away, saying wealthy residents will do the same thing with their tax dollars.

Curley on millionaires’ tax: ‘It’s not that they don’t want to pay, it’s that they don’t trust you’

“Think about this way. You drive down the road; one store is two miles from your house. Another store is 10 miles from your house. But the store that’s 10 miles from your house has something you want to buy, and you save $5 by going to that store,” Curley said on “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio. “So you’re going to go 10 miles away to save $5. Now, what are you spending in gas? People don’t even think about that. But it’s like I’m going there. You go past the one place to go to the other place. Why? To save yourself some money.

“People will make efforts to save themselves some money,” he continued. “And if they’ve got big money, they go, and they will go. And it’s not that they don’t want to pay; it’s that they don’t trust you, and they see the size of the deficit. They see what you have already created for yourself, and as far as they’re concerned, they want nothing to do with you. It would be like horrible people trying to build something, and you come by to help out. You go, ‘Hey, I got a hammer.’ And you see them slamming stuff together, and think, ‘I want nothing to do with this. I don’t respect you. I don’t trust you. I don’t believe that you have the best interest of the taxpayers in mind. I don’t know who you’re serving, but I don’t want to be a party of this, so I will leave.’ And that’s why they go, and they are leaving.”

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.

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