If the Washington state Legislature were to enact a wealth tax as proposed in recent years, it would face significant legal challenges and a “realistic possibility” of being overturned by the state Supreme Court for violating the state constitution’s uniformity clause, according to a new memo from the State Attorney General’s Office obtained by The Center Square.
The March 7, 2025, memo written by Assistant Attorney General Andrew Krawczyk and sent to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s Office stated that if such a tax faced a legal challenge, “it is difficult to predict the outcome, but it is a realistic possibility for a Court to find that it violates uniformity.
“The provisions that pose the greatest risk are the $50 million threshold exemption and the credit for similar taxes paid to another state,” the memo states further.
Under Washington state’s Constitution, all classes of property must be taxed at a uniform rate and no more than 1%, which the legal memo states “placed stringent limitations on the authority of the state and local governments.” While state law allows the Legislature to create exemptions within a property tax, “there remains, however, an unanswered question with respect to the Legislature’s power to enact property tax exemptions by general law. Namely, is that power limited to a “full” exemption or can the Legislature enact a partial exemption?”
The memo also concluded that placing a $10 million cap on the tax would “would increase the chance” of violating the state Constitution.
Washington Policy Center Senior Researcher Paul Guppy told The Center Square that the memo’s author was “being cautious, because it is illegal.”
