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The following is presented as part of The Columbian’s Opinion content, which offers a point of view in order to provoke thought and debate of civic issues. Opinions represent the viewpoint of the author. Unsigned editorials represent the consensus opinion of The Columbian’s editorial board, which operates independently of the news department.
News / Opinion / Columns

Westneat: Inslee pushed for the possible

By Danny Westneat
Published: December 23, 2024, 6:01am

The perplexity of the modern city of Seattle was captured again recently in dueling headlines.

The first one hardly seems like it could be true given our hollowed-out downtown. “Seattle area leads nation in economic growth,” the business news revealed last week.

We’re still the No. 1 boom town. Seattle’s economy surged by 6.2 percent last year, more than in any other U.S. metro area, according to the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. It’s fueled by Big Tech, of course, along with “the ripple effects of several years of record-high housing construction.”

Quipped Seattle tech gazillionaire Nick Hanauer, after seeing this report: “Socialist hell hole.”

But immediately another headline dropped showing that the hell hole part is real, too: “Food bank visits spike in Seattle area,” Axios reported.

The number of people so hungry or budget-strapped they’ll stand in line for food jumped 25 percent in a single year. Statewide, food bank visits hit a record 13.3 million, versus 10.9 million last year.

How can both these things be true simultaneously — the unending boom along with the bottom-up bust?

It’s the story of our city and state over the last decade or two. It was interesting that outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee, in his final news conference after 12 years, chose to address this conundrum head on.

“This is a unique circumstance,” he said. “It’s a dynamic change in the economy that is producing wealth beyond human imagination, at the same time that fellow citizens literally are hungry and unhoused.”

This is the “prosperity bomb” — a phrase coined (by me) back in 2017. The prosperity part has been well documented, such as how Seattle now has more than 54,000 millionaires.

The bomb part is that all that money radiating out from our two multitrillion-dollar tech behemoths has also escalated prices and blasted many working people right out of town.

On his way out of office, Inslee proposed addressing this mother of all issues with a new tax on wealth, an annual 1 percent surcharge on assets above $100 million.

It’s an untested idea, as no state has one. Washington’s fiscal experts have warned it may not pass legal muster. Inslee acknowledged that it’s novel and that there could be better ideas out there to address the effects of wealth inequality.

“It’s a hard reality,” he said. That the biggest explosion of wealth in Seattle’s history brought with it so many serious problems did, I think, blindside many people.

In recent years in the Legislature, analysts have used IRS data to uncover that our state houses more rich people holding far more riches than anyone thought possible. The analysis with Inslee’s wealth tax on assets above $100 million found that we are home to 3,400 centimillionaires.

“These are not evil people,” Inslee said, insisting the proposal is not meant to be punitive. “These are entrepreneurial geniuses.”

Republicans were quick to predict the tax would drive those entrepreneurs out. Maybe, but they said that about the capital gains tax, too. Somehow, Seattle still has the frothiest economy in the nation.

To me, if we’re talking wealth taxes, we ought to also be looking at reducing costs, fees and taxes on the working class. Growing the government with more spending programs isn’t the only way to help people.

But whatever happens, it’s going to happen without Inslee. He was wistful about that: “This might be the last time I stand at this podium.”

The tech economy is a sea change the likes of which we haven’t seen since the Gilded Age. Listening to Inslee grapple with it, I was struck by how it’s like his signature crusade on climate change. These are enormous issues, too big for most governors to dare touch.

Other stuff that has worsened on Inslee’s watch, such as crime, might have been easier to go out on. Politically, he gets credit for pushing what’s possible. But pragmatically, can one midsize state affect such seismic, global problems anyway?

Love him or loathe him, let it be said about Jay Inslee: He never aimed low.

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