Tax-the-rich blue states want to leave wealthy ‘nowhere to hide’

Progressive lawmakers in a handful of blue states joined forces Thursday in a campaign to fire up energy for tax-the-rich policies in state capitols.

The effort is a way for Democratic lawmakers to counter arguments that wealthy residents will move away, and to broadly promote progressive tax policies, especially with Republicans controlling the U.S. House of Representatives.

In Hawaiʻi, new bills would impose the state’s ordinary income tax rates on capital gains and impose the state’s estate tax on transfers of property owned by nonresidents. A Minnesota bill would lower the exemption cutoff for the estate tax.

Wealth-tax bills are being introduced elsewhere, although they weren’t part of Thursday’s joint effort. In Oregon a bill (H.B. 2673) would add a 13 percent tax bracket for incomes over $500,000.