Alex Ramel — Greg Thames article
WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. — We are sitting on the second floor of the Community Food Co-op in downtown Bellingham, and Alex Ramel is pointing down at the aisles below us. “You see those two aisles over there?” he says. “You pay sales tax on that stuff right now. In a couple years, you won’t.”
He is talking about toilet paper. Shampoo. Diapers. Over-the-counter medicine. The things you grab without thinking about, toss in your cart, everyday stuff. The kind of stuff that hits harder when money is tight.
Ramel, the Democratic incumbent running for re-election in the 40th Legislative District which covers parts of Whatcom, Skagit and San Juan counties, is explaining the millionaire’s tax, a law he has championed in Olympia. It passed this year and was signed into law by Gov. Bob Ferguson on March 30th. And he is doing it from the second floor of a food co-op, surrounded by the very items he says will cost shoppers less at the register because of it.
The setting feels almost too on the nose. But that is, in many ways, exactly how Ramel operates. He wants to connect the abstract to the tangible. Policy to your grocery receipt. Whether that philosophy has earned him another term is now up to voters.
Here is what the law actually does, stripped of the talking points on both sides. Starting in 2028, Washington households earning more than $1 million a year will pay a 9.9% tax on income above that threshold. Washington has long rejected a traditional broad-based income tax, which is why critics see this as a major line-crossing moment.
But Ramel is quick to point out that the law is not only a new tax. It is also a package of reductions. Beginning in 2029, those essential grocery items, toilet paper, shampoo, diapers, over-the-counter medications will be exempt from sales tax. The B&O tax threshold for small businesses will double, from $150,000 to $300,000 in gross revenue, meaning the smallest businesses get a break before the state starts taking a cut. The Working Families Tax Credit, a rebate on sales tax for low-income households, will expand to nearly twice as many people.
According to Ramel, about 40 to 45 percent of the revenue from the millionaire’s tax will be used to reduce those other regressive taxes. The rest goes toward schools, early childhood education, and healthcare.
Ramel said sales tax is one of the most regressive taxes Washington relies on and argued that exempting basic household goods is one of the clearest ways to reduce the burden of everyday costs.
Not everyone sees it that way. Republican lawmakers, business groups and anti-income-tax advocates have argued that whatever you call it, a millionaire’s tax, a wealth tax, or an income tax, Washington has now crossed a line it cannot easily walk back. For decades, the absence of a broad-based income tax has been part of Washington’s identity, and in some cases, part of its pitch to businesses and high-income professionals.
It is worth noting that not all Democrats have embraced the law either. And some critics have pointed out a wrinkle in the “millionaire’s tax” label itself: the threshold is based on household income, meaning a married couple where each spouse earns $500,000 would together hit the $1 million threshold and be subject to the tax. For dual-income households, the effective entry point may feel closer to home than the “millionaire” label suggests.
The deeper fear is what comes next. When asked directly whether the tax could eventually expand to people making less than a million dollars, Ramel did not say no. He said the issue will likely go to court, or it may go before voters, and that he would take a “wait and see approach” before supporting any expansion. He said any future increase should be paired with cuts elsewhere.
“If we’re going to increase taxes over here,” he said, “they’re going to decrease over there.” That is not a guarantee. Voters who are skeptical of the state’s appetite for revenue may find that answer thin. Ramel is essentially asking for trust, trust that a structure built for millionaires will not gradually reach further down.
There was a moment in the interview that captured something true about how Ramel operates in Olympia. When asked about concerns from builders and landlords that the state’s rent stabilization law which Ramel supported might discourage new construction, he rejected the argument.
“That is their talking point,” he said. He then went on to explain, in careful detail, why he believes the concern is overstated. New construction is exempt from rent caps for the first twelve years, well beyond the three-year window banks typically use to evaluate loans. The explanation was thorough and, by most measures, responsive. But the moment revealed both Ramel’s strength and his vulnerability: he knows the policy details, but he can sound dismissive of critics before explaining why he thinks they are wrong.
Ramel is a policy person. He believes in the details. He is comfortable in the weeds in a way that can read as confidence, or as impatience, depending on where you sit.
He has been in the legislature for six years. He has worked on climate policy, housing supply, energy infrastructure, and tax reform. Some of it has moved. Some of it is still moving. For example the mental health facility funded for Whatcom County two years ago has not been built yet. Or the results of the ADU rules are, in his own words, “anecdotal at this point.”
That is the honest version of the record: some real progress, some real gaps, some real uncertainty about what comes next. Down in the aisles below us, someone is loading a basket with shampoo and paper towels. They will pay sales tax on it today. If Ramel is right about the law he championed, they will not in a few years. If his critics are right, that is just the beginning of a much longer story.
Either way, the voters in the 40th District will have something to say about it.
This is an original Bellingham Metro News article
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