Vegas Lures Millionaires Fleeing Wealth Tax in Washington State

At a Christmas party last year in Las Vegas, nearly a dozen wealthy former residents of Washington state compared notes on their transition to the desert.

They agreed that the sunshine was nice. Even better was the feeling that the state of Nevada wanted them to be there.

Some rich people say that’s increasingly not the case in Washington, where Democratic state lawmakers are barreling toward a first-in-the-nation wealth tax on financial holdings to help close a roughly $13 billion budget deficit over the next four years.

The measure is all but certain to face a legal challenge if it ...