(The Center Square) – An anti-tax crowd gathered at the state capitol in Olympia on Saturday, with protesters expressing frustration over a lack of affordability and even touching on concerns about alleged daycare fraud involving Somali-run centers in Washington state.
The daycare scandal originated in Minnesota and involved viral videos alleging massive fraud in Somali-run, government-funded child care centers, leading to federal investigations and community backlash. The situation prompted investigations into similar allegations in other states, including Washington.
Washington State Republican Party Chair and state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, attended the rally, telling the crowd that the potential daycare fraud is “a tipping point” for frustrated taxpayers.
“People are reacting all around the state. It’s taken longer than some of us would like for people to get to this place, but they’re starting to get here,” he said from the steps of the Legislative Building before a crowd of about 50 people carrying American flags and anti-tax signs.
Walsh explained that majority-party Democrats, who have pushed through massive tax increases in recent sessions, have not faced the reality of today’s economy.
“Let’s remember how we got to this place,” he said, pointing to the Legislative Building. “The spending in this building and the operating budget was, about 10 years ago, $40 billion every two years. Now, the one that just passed during the 2025 session was just under $80 billion, so it’s doubled in about a decade.”
The crowd responded with boos and jeers.
According to Walsh, things were better in Washington before lawmakers went on a spending spree.
“Without having to raise tax rates that much, the state economy was growing enough that it enabled that spending to increase,” he said. “We had Microsoft growing, and we had Amazon exploding, and other tech industry doing side projects for the big ones. This was a booming economy, and that covered all the increase in spending.
“We’re in this place now, this inflection point and turning point, where the economy is steady, but the government is tapped out. And it’s tapping the people out. And when the government is running short, it leans on you.”
A 15-year-old girl named Brooklyn, a homeschool student in Vancouver, who has her own X account, held a sign that said, “Teens Against Fraud.”
“As a teen, it’s infuriating to me to see my parents’ taxpayer money going to these pretty much fraudulent daycare businesses, and knowing I’m going to be a taxpayer within the next few years, I do not want to fund this. This needs to stop,” she told The Center Square. “They’re stealing from my generation.”
She wore a sweatshirt with the words “Are You Learing Yet” on the front. It was a reference to the now-infamous Minneapolis daycare featured in citizen activist Nick Shirley’s video about Minnesota fraud, which had a sign out front with the misspelled word.
Walsh urged those in attendance to attend the legislative session in Olympia and connect with their lawmakers in person.
“We need you who understand running a business and working a job where you make something,” he said. “We need you to remind us in this building how the real economy works.”
A man from the crowd shouted, “The politicians forgot they work for us, we the people!”
Walsh discussed a “millionaires’ tax” being considered by Democrats that has garnered the support of Gov. Bob Ferguson.
The tax would apply to individuals and households, who would pay a 9.9% tax on their adjusted gross income exceeding $1 million. It could generate an estimated $3 billion from a projected 20,000 households in the state of Washington.
“What the governor and his supporters will have to do is push it through as a law, and then they’re going to have to anticipate lawsuits because it will clearly be unconstitutional,” he said. “They don’t understand that businesses will leave and not even that they will leave, but that the next Amazon is not going to happen in this state.”
Washington’s constitution does not explicitly use the words “income tax,” but, as interpreted by its Supreme Court for nearly a century, it effectively prohibits a graduated income tax. This is because the state’s constitution broadly defines income as “property,” which must be taxed uniformly under the uniformity clause
Opponents argue that it would likely lead to capital flight, where high-income earners, who often serve as job creators, will leave Washington to avoid the tax. Those same opponents also contend that the tax, while initially applying only to millionaires, would be amended to apply to those making less in the years to come.
