Ironically, liberal areas tend to have more wealthy folks than conservative areas, but they also tend to have more will to tax their wealthy folks

My thoughts from a recent comment thread on Facebook.

A lot of people in the prosperous cities want to tax themselves and especially their wealthy neighbors MORE. Here in Washington State, progressive and wealthy Seattle area usually votes to tax itself more, if it can. In some cases, the metro area is restricted by state laws against taxation that tend to be more popular on statewide ballots where both urban and rural, more conservative voters get a vote. Even if liberal minded people are often thought of as part of the elite, in urban areas, they often support higher taxes that wealthy folks, such as Bill Gates would pay.

Problem is, the State doesn't allow it, in many cases. For instance, cities can't impose an income tax though I think Seattle has tried that at the ballot. Washington State still has no state income tax.

I am remembering that Bill Gate's father was back of an initiative to tax the wealthy who make over (I think) $250,000 per year. I think Bill Gates, himself, supported the idea, but his own father was the main organizer of that initiative. That was Washington State Initiative 1098 in 2010.

That initiative did not pass the voters in a statewide vote. Rural areas, of Washington State, tend to be more conservative than the metro areas. There wasn't enough vote, even in the metros, to cancel out the vote from rural Washington. If King County (where Seattle is located) had been able to vote on it's own, I think that initiative would have passed.