Washington Democrats are celebrating their shiny new “millionaire’s tax,” but the people who actually understand housing markets are waving red flags—and not the progressive kind.

Seattle REALTOR® of the Year Michael Orbino isn’t saying the sky is falling…just that “very dark clouds” are forming. Translation: this isn’t some neatly targeted tax on a few ultra-wealthy unicorns. It’s already rippling through the housing market, with high-end homeowners fast-tracking sales—not because they want to leave, but because Democrats just gave them a financial reason to.

And despite the usual dismissive talking points, this isn’t theoretical. Sellers are literally listing homes early to get out. Wealthy residents are reconsidering staying. And yes—some are already heading for the exits.

But the real damage isn’t just who leaves—it’s who never comes.

Orbino points out the obvious question Democrats seem allergic to: where will the next wave of entrepreneurs go? Start a company in Washington…or take your talent, jobs, and investment to Idaho or Florida instead? When policymakers start taxing success, don’t be surprised when success relocates.

Then there’s the part Democrats really don’t want to talk about: builders.

Construction doesn’t run on neat, predictable annual profits. Builders can lose money for years and then finally turn a profit—only to get slammed with a tax bill when they do. As Building Industry Association’s Jan Himebaugh bluntly puts it, you could lose money on a project and still owe taxes.

Nothing says “build more housing” like punishing the people who build it.

And here’s the kicker: when builders pull back, housing doesn’t magically get cheaper—it just doesn’t get built. Fewer projects. Less supply. Higher prices.

So while Democrats pat themselves on the back for “affordability” policies, they’re simultaneously discouraging investment, shrinking supply, and pushing out the very people needed to fix the problem.

Turns out you can’t tax your way into more housing—but you can absolutely tax your way into less. Read more at Center Square.

In a stunning display of legislative gymnastics, Washington Democrats managed to do two completely contradictory things in about 24 hours: pass a brand-new income tax to “fully fund education”…and then approve more than $1 billion in cuts to education programs the very next day.

You almost have to admire the efficiency.

As the Washington Policy Center points out, for months, lawmakers insisted the income tax was an urgent necessity—invoking struggling schools, hungry kids, and constitutional duties. The message was clear: without this tax, education would suffer.

Then—oops—education gets cut anyway.

The excuse? The tax revenue won’t show up until 2028. Which raises a pretty obvious question Democrats hope no one asks: if the money isn’t coming for years, how exactly was this tax supposed to “save” anything today?

Answer: it wasn’t.

Instead, Washington families get the worst of both worlds—immediate cuts now, and a shiny new tax later that mightdeliver funding someday…assuming the people being taxed don’t pack up and leave first.

And let’s not forget the bigger issue Democrats keep dodging: Washington already spends around $21,000 per student, yet student outcomes remain mediocre at best. Meanwhile, states spending far less are outperforming Washington in core subjects.

So naturally, the solution from Olympia is…more money.

Even better, as the Washington Policy Center explains, they’re ignoring over $700 million in available federal education funding—while turning around and taxing residents again to “fill the gap.”

It’s the political equivalent of ordering a meal, skipping the free entrée, and then charging yourself extra for dessert that won’t arrive for three years.

At some point, it stops being bad policy and starts looking like a pattern: promise urgency, pass the tax, cut anyway—and hope voters don’t connect the dots. Read more at the Washington Policy Center.

Washington just earned a not-so-coveted ranking: 48th in the nation for highway cost-effectiveness, including dead last in three major spending categories. In other words, taxpayers are paying top dollar…for bottom-tier roads.

According to the Reason Foundation report, this isn’t a funding problem—it’s a priorities problem. While other states stretch their transportation dollars into smoother roads and better infrastructure, Washington is stuck in what experts call a “maintenance death spiral.” Translation: things are getting worse, faster, and more expensive.

And it’s not like the warning signs are subtle. Over 300 bridges are at least 80 years old, with a $9.2 billion replacement backlog looming. Roads are deteriorating. Costs are skyrocketing. But somehow, the response from Olympia is always the same: spend more, fix less.

Why? Because, as the report points out, project decisions are often driven by politics—not actual road conditions. Instead of prioritizing basic maintenance (you know, the stuff drivers actually need), Democrats keep funneling money into pet projects while the pavement quite literally crumbles beneath people’s tires.

Even after throwing another $1.3 billion at the problem, experts say nothing will change without a fundamental shift in how projects are chosen. More money into a broken system just means…a more expensive mess.

So here we are: one of the highest-spending states on transportation, paired with some of the worst road performance in the country.

At this point, Washington’s infrastructure strategy is pretty clear—ignore the potholes, fund the politics, and hope no one notices the road disappearing beneath them. Read more at Seattle Red.

Washington’s Department of Licensing is now facing a lawsuit alleging it knowingly left a massive security hole open for years—potentially exposing thousands of residents to identity theft—and somehow, two weeks later, the state’s response is basically: “we’re looking into it.”

According to the claim, this wasn’t some one-off glitch. The vulnerability in the License Express system allegedly dates back to 2018, with internal investigations starting in 2019—meaning the state may have known about the problem for years while licenses were being rerouted in bulk to suspicious addresses using burner accounts and prepaid cards.

Subtle.

Even worse, the accusation isn’t just incompetence—it’s concealment. The attorney representing the case says the state minimized the issue, failed to fix it, and quietly let the problem persist while thousands of Washingtonians were put at risk.

All this from a state that loves to lecture everyone else about having the “strongest data privacy laws in the nation.”

Apparently, those laws don’t apply when the government itself is the one mishandling your personal data.

DOL’s response so far? No formal reply, no clear accountability—just vague assurances they’re “reviewing” the claim and insisting there’s no evidence of a breach, despite reports of years of suspicious activity and identity exposure.

And the implications don’t stop at identity theft. Questions are now being raised about how compromised data could impact automatic voter registration systems tied to driver’s licenses—something Democrats have aggressively expanded.

So to recap: the state may have left a digital back door open for years, failed to fix it, downplayed the damage, and is now slow-walking a response—while still insisting everything is fine.

For a government obsessed with regulating everyone else’s data, they seem remarkably casual about losing control of their own. Read more at Center Square.

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