Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson warned Tuesday that repealing the so-called millionaires tax could make daycare costs skyrocket. The planned tax is headed to voters for possible repeal this November.
If implemented, it would take a 9.9% cut of household incomes over $1 million. The tax is expected to yield around $3 billion in revenue per year once it takes effect in 2029.
Part of the money is earmarked for the Working Connections Child Care program, a subsidy program that assists low-income families with daycare costs. Without the tax, the program would lose funding due to the state’s ongoing budget crisis. Around 51,000 children and their families across the state take advantage of the Working Connections program.
“From the revenue of the millionaires tax, 5% of that revenue is specifically earmarked and must be used to support programs just like this all across our state,” Ferguson said during a visit to the José Martí Child Development Center at Cedar Crossing Roosevelt in Seattle.
The center’s director, Jasmin Calderon Shadlow, said if cuts to the Working Connections program were made, it would devastate the families that send their children there, as well as drastically reducing the program itself.
“ Many of our families rely on subsidies like Working Connections Childcare,” Calderon Shadlow said. “Any more cuts to funding in Washington Connections means that this type of caring environment that you see here today would be less affordable and less accessible, not only to families supported by the subsidy, but truly to all families as providers struggle to make up the losses.”
Voters will be faced with a decision on Nov. 3 whether to keep or repeal the proposed tax. Those looking to repeal the tax have warned that it could eventually extend to an income tax for all Washingtonians. Brian Heywood, founder of the conservative PAC Let’s Go Washington, who is behind the ballot measure to repeal the tax, said state Democrats won’t stop at incomes of $1 million or more.
Heywood pointed to recent comments by several state Democrats suggesting that lowering the income threshold was a possibility in the future.
“ I don't think it's a millionaires tax, right? What they're showing is that it's an income tax,” he said. “They designed it as an income tax.”
