Westneat: State an ATM for nation

New York has long been one of the top “donor” states in the nation. That means it has paid more in taxes than it gets back in benefits or spending on education, transportation, military or welfare — often by tens of billions of dollars. New York’s imbalance is mainly due to all the tax revenue that flows from highflying Wall Street.

Well, our little fishing village just passed them.

It turns out Washington now is the No. 3 donor state in the nation, behind only California and Massachusetts. People and companies here paid $22.5 billion more into the federal treasury in 2022 than we got back in spending, according to the Rockefeller Institute of Government.

Washington put more money into the system than states with millions more people, such as Ohio, Michigan and Georgia. And then far less was spent here.

This phenomenon has been derisively referred to as the “makers” and “takers.” Twenty years ago, Washington was more in the middle of the pack — we got about what we gave. But lately, due to Big Tech we have surged to become one of the top “maker” states in the nation.

It’s all those millionaires, economic analysts say. The cry for years has been “tax the rich,” but the reality is the federal system already does that. Because of the progressive federal income tax, those 54,000 millionaires in Seattle, plus countless more wealthy people and companies around the region, are generating a bonanza for the federal government.

That money then gets doled out more to red states — where their politicians not only refuse to acknowledge the help, but often deride even the concept of it.

Compare us to, say, our neighbor Idaho. Like most red states, Idaho is a “taker.” In 2022, $6 billion more federal dollars were spent in the state than its residents and businesses paid. So Washington is one of the top subsidizers of Trump country. What to make of this?

One is it ought to put an end to some myths. For starters, that Seattle is a big-government socialist welfare project. Or that conservative places are flinty and self-reliant. The opposite is the case — the red parts of the country are the ones propped up by government redistribution of wealth.

Two, though, is this is the way it’s supposed to work. The system is designed so people with more means support the needier. The Seattle area has become one of the frothiest wealth machines in American history, and so it was only a matter of time before the rest of the country came to depend on the money made here.

Yes it would be nice if red states ever acknowledged this — that it’s good to be part of a greater whole, even one that includes crazy Seattle. But liberals lobby for wealth-sharing systems exactly like this all the time. So they can’t complain too much when they get stuck with the tab.

That said, there is another solution. Bring home the damn bacon.

We are one of three states that currently pays $20 billion more into federal coffers than we get back. It’s a huge imbalance. Just a fraction of it could solve all the school funding shortfalls in the state, for example. So it should be taken as a permission slip for our congressional delegation — looking at you, Sen. Patty Murray and Sen. Maria Cantwell — to go ahead and shamelessly shower the state with pork.

Another report, for example, just came out about how much each state is getting in clean energy projects from the 2021 climate change bill. Washington ranks 37th.

This all gives new meaning to our old nickname, the Evergreen State. We’re now like an ATM for the nation — mostly Trump nation. If that sticks in the craw, our two senators do rank third and 12th in seniority, the highest combined status for all 50 states. They should make it rain.