Senate Ways & Means Committee Lowers Wealth Tax Rate From 1% To .034%

Democrats pounded another nail on the multi-billion dollar wealth tax Friday morning. The Senate Ways & Means Committee gave the wealth tax, Senate Bill 5797, a "do pass" recommendation, but before you celebrate, Sen. Noel Frame (D-Seattle), the bill's prime sponsor, changed the bill drastically during the committee meeting.

Initially, Frame proposed a tax rate of $10 per 1,000 of the true and

fair value of the financial intangible assets. The substitute bill will levy just a 34 cents per

$1,000 tax on financial intangible assets greater than $50 million. The substitute also redirected the tax revenues to the education legacy trust account instead of the general fund.

Again, advocates maintain that nothings over until it's over, but it's getting bleaker by the moment. Ferguson keeps pushing for more austerity, the Democrats excluded the wealth tax from their new revenue proposal, and now it looks like the Democrats may be creating a test balloon wealth tax like Ferguson asked for. Earlier this month, Ferguson said he would only accept a wealth tax that raised less than $100 million so that they didn't totally screw the budget if it failed legal challenge.