City of Seattle Graduated Income Tax Held Unconstitutional

Washington's state Constitution prohibits a graduated income tax. In a lengthy opinion,which summarizes Washington case law, today the Washington state Court of Appeals stuck down the Seattle income tax ordinance which was adopted in 2017. The Court stated that "Seattle has the statutory authority to adopt a property tax on income, but our state constitution’s uniformity requirement bars Seattle’s graduated" income tax. Therefore, the Seattle income tax ordinance is unconstitutional because only "individual taxpayers earning more than $250,000 and married taxpayers earning more than $500,000 must pay 2.25 percent of all income over those thresholds." It is beyond my self control not comment on the number of lawyers who made arguments in this case.