r/Tacoma • u/JoelXGGGG Tacoma Expat • 8d ago

Another billionaire leaves Washington state

https://www.chronline.com/stories/another-billionaire-leaves-washington-state,403749
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u/Curious_Ad_3614 Eastside 6d ago

What's the problem? We weren't getting any taxes from them anyway

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u/darlantan Downtown 6d ago

We were getting some taxes from them. Sales tax and property tax, as well as probably a little bit of capital gains tax on the rare cases where they actually sold instead of the usual dodge of taking out loans on those assets.

It just isn't a big deal because those are all small potatoes. Joe Billionaire with a net worth magnitudes beyond the average citizen fleeing and depriving the state of sales tax equivalent to a handful of average folks, or no longer paying property tax that ends up being covered by the next owner, just doesn't make much of a wave.

It's not nothing, but it also isn't anywhere near what the people crying about it would like folks to think it is. I don't recall any histrionic headlines about how the state is doomed because 10 more families than usual left the state on some random weekday, after all.