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Washington business owners fear socialist ‘millionaires tax’ is driving businesses out — and they’re next

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SEATTLE—Business owners in Washington state are worried that the recently passed “millionaires tax” will drive economic activity out—and even target them next. 

“There’s a lot of fear and trepidation with what’s going on in our government when it comes to taxes,” Matt Humphrey, a Seattle barber who has locations in the Ballard and Roosevelt areas, told Fox News Digital. 

“This new millionaire’s tax is definitely going to impact us,” Humphrey said. “We’re afraid… they treat us a bit like an ATM when it comes to paying out taxes as a small business.” 

Steve Gordon, principal of Gordon Truck Centers, a truck dealer in Pacific, Washington, said he is concerned that the millionaires tax will eventually make its way to those who are not in the millionaire income bracket. 

“The income tax is the latest kind of battle that’s happened here recently,” Gordon said. “But while they frame it as it’s just a tax on millionaires, I mean that’s stacked on a whole bunch of other taxes and there’s nothing to keep it from expanding to regular citizens. And I think a lot of regular folks realize that what might be just for millionaires today supposedly will be coming for them later as they broaden that tax base.” 

MAMDANI’S ESTATE TAX PLAN COULD DRIVE WEALTH OUT OF STATE, CRITICS WARN

Washington state Democrats last month passed the “millionaires tax,” which Democratic Gov. Bob Ferguson signed March 30. It’s the state’s first-ever income tax, celebrated by progressives and socialists and opposed by conservatives; the Wall Street Journal editorial board called it a “con” after its passage that will “inevitably capture the middle class.”

The new tax will impose a 9.9% income tax on households earning more than $1 million each year. T tax applies to any money earned after the first $1 million of someone’s annual income. It will take effect on Jan. 1, 2028, with the first payments due in April 2029, KOMO News reported

“Adoption of the historic Millionaires’ Tax makes our tax system more fair, and means free meals for K-12 students, the largest tax break in state history for small businesses, eliminating the sales tax for baby diapers, and sending a check to nearly 500,000 working families to make life more affordable,” Ferguson said at the time.

His office touted that the new tax “sends significant revenue back to Washington families and small business owners.”

But not everyone is thrilled.

“They’re all concerned. Everybody’s concerned,” radio host Ari Hoffman told Fox News Digital.

“And it doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, because as I mentioned before with regards to Amazon, if you’re a barber and you were reliant on the Amazonians as your customers, now you don’t have them anymore. You don’t have a barbershop anymore. There were a lot of places that opened up in South Lake Union where Amazon was specifically for Amazon, and they had to close shortly thereafter.”

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570 KVI reported Wednesday that Socialist Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson is suggesting she might be pursuing additional taxes on the wealthy and big business. 

“Speaking at a community forum Friday night, Wilson said her administration is exploring new ‘progressive revenue options’ to help close a projected $140 million city budget gap in 2027,” the outlet reported, quoting Wilson who said, “My team is very hard at work looking for progressive revenue options, taxing the rich, taxing big business in a way that we think will be politically viable and practical.” 

The city of Seattle, according to the Tax Foundation, has the highest combined state and local sales tax rate, sitting at 10.35%. 

The organization points out that Seattle surpassed the city of Tacoma, Washington, which had a 10.3 percent tax rate, when King County, where Seattle is located, adopted a 0.1% additional sales tax to generate additional revenue for nonprofits providing cultural programming.

“I pay two different B&O taxes, a state B&O tax, a city B&O, I pay sales tax,” Humphrey told Fox News Digital.

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“They want to tax me on all my equipment that I use here annually, that I’ve already paid sales tax on,” he said. “They come up with the highest minimum wage in the state, if not in the country, that I’m aware of. So the cost of labor, the other thing is our relationship with labor. They put us in a very vulnerable position when it comes to actually being an employer. It doesn’t favor the employer.”

Washington State’s Business & Occupation (B&O) tax is the Evergreen State’s primary business tax. It is unusual because it is charged on gross receipts, or total revenue, rather than profit, meaning that businesses must pay the tax even if they lose money.

Several Washington cities have a higher minimum wage than Seattle’s $21.30 per hour, including Tukwila at $21.65 for large employers and Renton at $21.57.

“Amazon used to be bustling,” Hoffman told Fox News Digital. “It was like when I would go down there, I felt like it was in Manhattan. I couldn’t find a parking spot anywhere. And now, no problem, I can park wherever I want. It’s really sad.”

FROM ‘JUMP ON A BUS’ TO TAX CRACKDOWNS: BLUE STATES CHASE WEALTHY RESIDENTS FLEEING TO RED HAVENS

On Feb. 24, Amazon told GeekWire that it would not renew its lease at 1915 Terry Ave in the Denny Triangle area of downtown Seattle, which had occupied the space for 12 years. 

GeekWire reported that the company is growing its presence outside downtown Seattle in Bellevue, located in King County, Washington, across Lake Washington from Seattle. 

It has opened new office buildings and plans to have 25,000 employees as part of its regional headquarters.

“I mean, I look at my own community,” Hoffman said. “When you had a lot of people who lived here specifically for the tech world, and in 2020 they were told they could work remotely, a lot of them went elsewhere and were still collecting a Seattle salary and then found jobs in those other places. They never came back. The jobs aren’t going to come back magically. These taxes, these policies are scaring people off and a lot of people are leaving.”

Starbucks is another company appearing to lessen its Seattle presence, confirming in March that it will be closing five additional stores in the city. That follows several closures in 2025, including the Starbucks Reserve Roastery on Capitol Hill. 

Additionally, in a March post on LinkedIn, former Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz announced that he and his wife moved to Florida for their “retirement phase,” leaving Washington state after almost half a century.

GRADUALLY, THEN SUDDENLY, BLUE STATE AMERICA IS HEADING FOR FINANCIAL DISASTER

While Schultz did not mention the millionaires tax, some, like Gordon, speculate his departure could have been due to it. 

“It was pretty ironic that Howard Schultz, who definitely has been a person of the Left nationally with his political profile, announced the day that they approved that income tax in our legislature, he made the announcement that he was leaving for tax-free Miami, Florida,” Gordon said. 

“So I don’t think that was a coincidence,” he went on. “And for people that have watched Jeff Bezos leave and other prominent members of the Seattle business community, you start to see a trend there that’s unavoidable that the leaders of the businesses are leaving and the businesses themselves are relocating. Starbucks headquarters, for instance, has just opened up a new second headquarters in Tennessee and the speculation is they’re eventually going to move all of their employees out of their Seattle headquarters to Tennessee.”

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But State Rep. Shaun Scott of Seattle, a member of the Seattle Democratic Socialists of America since 2017, told Fox News Digital that he doesn’t want to engage in hypotheticals about the future of the millionaires tax trickling down to the less wealthy.

“Well, it’s very difficult to legislate with hypotheticals and to legislate thinking about what may happen 10, 15, 20 years down the line in a legislative body that I may not even actually be a part of,” Scott said. 

“I believe that it is our role as state lawmakers to legislate according to the issues that are impacting us while anticipating ones that might come down the line,” he added. 

Scott continued, “And the fact of the matter is that right now in Washington state we have galling wealth inequality. And underfunded public institutions. And the way that that is reconciled is through basic arithmetic. People who have more could afford to be paying more into the system. And when that happens, I think that Washington will be an even more competitive place to live, work, and do business than it is at present.”

CORPORATE AMERICA IS ON THE MOVE, AND THESE RED STATES ARE CASHING IN

Scott said he believes “taxing the rich” is popular among both Republicans and Democrats. 

“Well, taxing the rich and the idea of taxing wealth in order to fund services that we all use, make no mistake about it, this is about as popular a policy position in Washington state as any other,” Scott said.  

“As a matter of fact, it is, I would venture to say, the most popular position that somebody could take,” Scott added. “In the November 2024 election cycle here in Washington state, approaching two-thirds of Washington state voters statewide cast their ballots in favor of a capital gains tax upholding our capital gains tax, which funds early learning K-12 schools and child care in our state. So when you talk about taxing the rich in our state, that is something that is staunchly supported in very red conservative legislative districts as well as very progressive blue legislative districts like my own.”

Vijay Boyapati, a former software engineer for Google, moved to Seattle in 2006 from California to escape high taxes there.

He told Fox News Digital that he sees taxes consistently rising in the state without “results.”

“Taxes have gone up constantly over the last decade. They’ve almost doubled from about ten years ago, but educational results are much worse, so the money isn’t producing the results that they say it will produce,” Boyapati said.

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“So the question really needs to be, why are we not getting better results? he asked. “I think we need to look at why our school systems are failing, why 8th graders, for instance, have like a 70% rate of illiteracy and really poor scores on math, those are really important things to look at and throwing more money at it hasn’t solved the problem, so I think we need to kind of address the problem first before throwing more at it.”  

A June report from the Washington State Standard found that, “More than two-thirds of the state’s 4th graders failed to meet reading standards, and 70% of 8th graders weren’t proficient in math last year.” 

Boyapati also said friends of his are leaving the state because of the tax climate.

“I have friends who’ve left to Texas, friends who left to Miami, friends who’ve left to Wyoming,” he said. “And it’s all for the same reason. It’s because Washington really went very far left in the last four years, and the policy changes have been really dramatic and that caused a lot of my friends to leave, unfortunately.” 

Humphrey, the Ballard barber, said that he would warn others about something similar happening in their state. 

“What I would say to the rest of the country is don’t let this happen to you,” Humphrey said.

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“Don’t become so compassionate around these issues that sound good and don’t not do your homework,” Humphrey added. “Please look. Look closely at the taxing of small businesses. You can’t, you know, what we’re doing here in the state – going against the Constitution for an income tax is a terrible decision, and it’s going to snowball right towards us, right? I’m next. I’m the next in line. I don’t make a million dollars a year for sure, but I’m in line for them to come after for a state income tax. And I guarantee you, I can’t afford that.” 

In a statement to Fox News Digital about its Seattle presence, Starbucks said, “We regularly review how our coffeehouses serve their neighborhoods and if they are meeting customers where they are. Sometimes that means investing in updates or trying new formats.” 

The company added, “Other times, it means making the difficult decision to close a location that no longer fits how people in that community live, work, or gather. These choices are never easy — especially here at home — but they’re an important part of focusing on what we do best and delivering on our Back to Starbucks strategy.” 

An Amazon spokesperson told Fox News Digital in a statement that, “Amazon employees will be moving out of 1915 Terry Avenue at the end of May when our lease expires and relocating to other Puget Sound headquarter offices.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to former Starbucks CEO Schultz, Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson, and Gov. Bob Ferguson for comment. 

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Supreme Court Delivers Emergency Decision – It’s Finally Happening

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Supreme Court Delivers Emergency Decision – It’s Finally Happening

President Donald Trump scored another significant legal victory Monday after the U.S. Supreme Court sided with his administration in a case challenging controversial Biden-era energy regulations that critics say would have reduced consumer choice and driven popular appliances out of the marketplace.

The ruling marks the latest setback for former President Joe Biden’s regulatory agenda and comes as the Trump administration continues working to roll back federal rules that conservatives argue placed unnecessary burdens on businesses and American consumers.

In *American Gas Association v. Department of Energy*, the Supreme Court vacated a lower court ruling that had upheld Biden administration regulations targeting non-condensing furnaces and commercial water heaters. The decision sends the case back for further review and opens the door for the Trump administration to pursue a different approach.

At the center of the dispute were Department of Energy efficiency standards that industry groups argued would effectively eliminate certain categories of gas-powered appliances by making compliance nearly impossible.

The American Gas Association and a coalition of trade organizations challenged the regulations, contending that the federal government had exceeded its authority and ignored statutory protections designed to preserve consumer choice.

Solicitor General John Sauer, representing the Trump administration, argued that federal law does not permit regulators to wipe out entire classes of products through aggressive efficiency mandates.

“The Department may not adopt standards that effectively eliminate from the market products that have distinct ‘performance characteristics,’” Solicitor General John Sauer wrote in a brief to the high court.

The Supreme Court ultimately agreed that the lower court should reconsider its ruling, delivering an important win for businesses, manufacturers, and consumers who opposed the regulations.

The Trump administration has already indicated that it intends to revisit the rules entirely.

“The Department has determined that the rules at issue are factually and legally flawed, and the agency is considering a new rulemaking in which it would correct those errors,” Sauer wrote.

The decision represents another major blow to Biden’s environmental and energy agenda, which frequently sought to use federal agencies to push stricter efficiency standards across a broad range of household products and appliances.

The legal victory comes just days after Republicans in the House of Representatives approved legislation targeting another Biden-era regulation that became a symbol of government overreach for many Americans.

Lawmakers voted 226-197 to pass the Saving Homeowners from Overregulation with Exceptional Rinsing Act, commonly known as the SHOWER Act.

The legislation attracted support from 11 Democrats and aims to reverse restrictions affecting multi-nozzle shower systems.

Republicans argued that Biden administration regulations unnecessarily reduced water pressure by limiting the combined flow rate of multiple shower heads connected to a single fixture.

Representative Russell Fry of South Carolina, who introduced the legislation, framed the issue as one of personal freedom and consumer choice.

“Washington bureaucrats have gone too far in dictating what happens in Americans’ own homes,” said Rep. Russell Fry (R-SC) who sponsored the legislation.

“This is about defending consumer choice, pushing back on regulatory overreach, and standing up for commonsense policy,” Fry added.

Supporters of the legislation argued that the rule reflected a broader pattern of federal agencies attempting to regulate everyday aspects of American life.

“It seems like the Democrats want to tax you out of existence and overregulate you,” said Rep. John McGuire (R-VA). “So, this is a step in the right direction. Less regulation.”

The SHOWER Act would permanently codify an executive order signed by President Trump that restored a more consumer-friendly interpretation of federal law. Under Trump’s order, each nozzle in a multi-head shower system is treated individually rather than having all nozzles combined under a single flow-rate limit.

House Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman Brett Guthrie praised the legislation as a practical solution that returns decision-making power to consumers.

“By codifying how different nozzles are categorized, the SHOWER Act offers a commonsense fix that will allow households to choose what meets their needs, not what Washington mandates,” said Rep. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

Fry echoed those concerns and argued that the Biden administration’s approach had become a symbol of excessive federal interference.

He said, “The SHOWER Act reaffirms that each nozzle is a shower head — plain and simple — and that homeowners, not the federal government, should decide how much water pressure they want.”

Taken together, the Supreme Court’s ruling and the House vote represent major victories for President Trump’s broader effort to reduce federal regulations, expand consumer choice, and rein in what supporters view as years of bureaucratic overreach by Washington agencies.

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Trump Sends Haters Into Full Meltdown With Who He Brought To NBA Game

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Trump Sends Haters Into Full Meltdown With Who He Brought To NBA Game

President Donald Trump made a high-profile appearance Monday night at Madison Square Garden as the New York Knicks hosted Game 3 of the NBA Finals, bringing national attention to an already historic evening for New York City.

The Knicks entered the game with a commanding 2-0 series lead over the San Antonio Spurs and stood just two victories away from capturing their first NBA championship in decades. The matchup marked the first NBA Finals game played at Madison Square Garden since 1999, creating enormous excitement throughout the city.

Security around the arena was significantly heightened as President Trump attended the game alongside members of his administration, close advisers, and longtime allies. The increased security presence came just one day after six people were injured during a stabbing incident at nearby Penn Station, located directly beneath Madison Square Garden.

The president arrived to a packed arena and watched the game from a private suite alongside a number of prominent administration officials and advisers.

Among those reportedly attending with the president were:

Sec. Sean Duffy

Sec. Doug Burgum

Administrator Lee Zeldin

Deputy COS Dan Scavino

Jared Kushner

Envoy Steve Witkoff

Walt Nauta

Boris Epshteyn

Natalie Harp

The appearance highlighted Trump’s continued visibility on the national stage while also underscoring his deep connection to New York City, where he built his business career long before entering politics.

Meanwhile, as the president attended one of the biggest sporting events of the year, he continued drawing attention to another issue that has become a central focus of his administration: election integrity.

Trump has repeatedly criticized California’s election system as state officials continue counting ballots from last week’s primary elections. The prolonged counting process has reignited debate over election administration and voter confidence in the nation’s most populous state.

The controversy intensified after U.S. Attorney Bill Essayli disclosed that the Department of Justice has spent more than a year attempting to review California’s voter registration records.

“For over a year, the Department of Justice has been trying to audit California’s voter rolls,” Essayli said.

“Federal law gives the Attorney General the authority to review state voter files and confirm that only eligible U.S. citizens are voting in federal elections,” he added.

The dispute comes as California election officials continue processing large numbers of ballots days after polls closed. Unlike many states that report nearly complete election results within hours, California’s system routinely requires days or even weeks to finalize outcomes.

The lengthy process has fueled concerns among many voters who question why election results remain unresolved long after Election Day.

Essayli also highlighted several aspects of California’s voter registration policies that have attracted attention from federal officials.

Among the forms of identification accepted for certain voter registration purposes are gym membership cards, employer identification cards, credit and debit cards, prescription drug labels, and insurance cards.

Critics argue that such policies deserve closer scrutiny, while supporters maintain that safeguards are already in place to protect election integrity.

The issue has also renewed discussion surrounding the SAVE America Act, legislation supported by many Republicans that would establish nationwide proof-of-citizenship requirements for federal voter registration.

California officials continue to defend the state’s election system and insist that existing safeguards adequately protect the voting process. They also maintain that there is no evidence that widespread non-citizen voting has affected election outcomes.

Nevertheless, the Justice Department’s ongoing efforts suggest that federal scrutiny of California’s election practices is likely to continue in the months ahead.

As President Trump watched the Knicks pursue a championship before a national audience, the broader debate over election security, voter roll maintenance, and ballot-counting procedures remained front and center in American politics.

For the administration, both issues reflect themes that have become central to Trump’s presidency: public safety, government accountability, and restoring confidence in institutions that many Americans believe deserve greater transparency.

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Iran Makes Shocking Admission About Trump’s Strike On Ayatollah

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Iran Makes Shocking Admission About Trump’s Strike On Ayatollah

New details released by Iran’s own foreign minister are shedding light on the operation that eliminated Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and reshaped the balance of power in the Middle East.

The account, offered by Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi during a televised interview, provides one of the clearest descriptions yet of the strike that launched Operation Epic Fury. According to counterterrorism experts, the remarks serve as powerful evidence that the joint U.S.-Israeli operation was not designed to indiscriminately destroy an entire complex but instead to surgically target the leadership at the center of Iran’s regime.

Araghchi revealed that he survived the February 28 strike because he was located in a different section of Khamenei’s compound when the attack occurred.

“Well, the building we were sitting in was targeted, but the wing we were in remained intact while the other wing of the building was destroyed,” Araghchi said in an interview that aired June 4 on the Lebanon-based, Hezbollah-backed Al Mayadeen television network.

The revelation immediately drew attention from military analysts, who pointed to the extraordinary accuracy required to destroy one section of a heavily protected compound while leaving another standing.

According to Araghchi, Khamenei was in his office at the time of the attack. Other officials inside portions of the compound also survived because they were not located in the targeted area.

Dr. Omar Mohammed, a counterterrorism expert and director of the Antisemitism Research Initiative at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, said the description confirms what many military observers suspected from the beginning.

“In the Arabic version, Araghchi says he was in a different wing of the compound, briefing another official, and his wing survived while the leader’s office was destroyed,” Mohammed explained.

Araghchi also disclosed that he had arrived at the compound for a meeting related to negotiations in Geneva and indicated that Khamenei was expected to be present in his office according to standard procedures.

Based on those details, Mohammed argued that the operation demonstrated an unprecedented level of intelligence gathering and precision targeting.

“They did not flatten a building; they took one wing and left the one next to it standing. That is President Trump’s whole doctrine in a single strike — he does not want a war of occupation, he wants to show the United States can reach the center of a hostile regime with precision and then offer it a way out,” Mohammed said.

Military officials later confirmed that the strike involved Israeli aircraft employing dozens of precision-guided munitions alongside advanced air-launched ballistic missiles. The attack reportedly killed Khamenei, Defense Minister Amir Nasirzadeh, IRGC Commander Mohammed Pakpour, and several additional senior security officials.

President Trump later publicly acknowledged U.S. involvement in the operation.

“He was unable to avoid our intelligence and highly sophisticated tracking systems, and, working closely with Israel, there was not a thing he or the other leaders killed alongside him could do,” the president wrote.

Mohammed believes the strike sent a message that Tehran should have immediately understood.

“Iran was handed the clearest message an adversary can get — we can reach your leader in his own office, and here is the off-ramp,” Mohammed noted. “A rational state takes the exit. Tehran did the opposite. It fired on Israel, killed a civilian in Bahrain, struck Kuwait, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates, and closed the Strait of Hormuz, setting off a global energy crisis. The surgical strike was American. The months-long war that followed was Iran’s choice.”

Following Khamenei’s death, leadership passed to his son, Mojtaba Khamenei, a transition that Mohammed believes revealed deeper contradictions within Iran’s political system.

“In Arabic, Araghchi calls the new leader ‘the young Khamenei in place of the elderly Khamenei.’ That is the language of a monarchy, not a republic of clerics,” Mohammed observed. “They are rewriting the theology on air to fit a son who lacks the religious rank, who was wounded in the same strike and who then vanished for weeks. A revolution that came to power by ending a monarchy is handing the throne from father to son.”

For many analysts, the operation has become a defining example of President Trump’s national security philosophy: use overwhelming precision to neutralize threats, avoid prolonged military occupations, and leave adversaries with a clear opportunity to de-escalate.

“The real story is not that Iran is strong,” Mohammed continued. “It was shown the precision of American power and the door was held open, and it chose to widen the war instead.”

Araghchi’s account appears to reinforce what American and Israeli officials have maintained from the start. The strike was not an act of indiscriminate destruction. It was a carefully planned operation aimed directly at the leadership of one of America’s most persistent adversaries, demonstrating both the reach and precision of modern U.S. military capabilities.

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