Trying to figure out how to fund Washington State without stalling the engine that drives the state's prosperity, assuming prosperity is desired.

Washington State is considering modifying it's estate tax given the fear that the state's wealthiest folks will leave Washington. The change would lower the tax on the top bracket as Washington is an outlier, in that, among other states.

It's easier to impose a high tax at the national level, but national politics, run by Republicans, is against that. When individual states try to do it, the super wealthy can relocate to another state more easily than leaving the country.

Some folks might say good riddance when pushing out the wealthy, but the economy does need entrepreneurs and business investment to remain prosperous, that is assuming prosperity is desired. Due to that reality, the super wealthy do, basically, have everyone else over the barrel. The wealthy do pay taxes so if many of them leave the state, tax revenue collections could go down.

One way that I would address this situation, which I know would not be politically popular, would be to lower the top most bracket, but broaden the estate tax to more people. This would hit upper middle class more.

I think a broader tax would also be less dependent on portable wealth, such as stocks, that can easily be moved along with the super wealthy individuals leaving the state. I think it would skew more toward home values that have gone way up in recent years. Values in the 1 - 3 million dollar range would pay more tax.

As I understand, the current estate tax exempts estate value under 3 million. It only collects the tax on value above that first 3 million threshold. Then it applies a 10% rate.

At the top of the scale, it applies a hefty 35% tax rate on estate value over 9 million. This brings up the worry of the super wealthy and entrepreneurs leaving the state.

One idea, I would have, is to lower the exemption amount to more like 1 million dollars in value versus the 3 million. This would tax a lot more estates. Then the upper level could be lowered, say, to 20% to ease the worry of chasing out the very wealthiest.

I think they are now doing part of that. They are lowering the 35% tax to 20% on the top estates. Then they are planning to pass another law to add an income tax in the state. A tax on incomes over 1 million dollars.

I do favor an income tax, but it may run into problems with Washington State's constitutional prohibition on income taxes. I'm not sure how they are planning to work around that.

Anyway, we will see what happens.