Information about how much money three Republican Party-backed initiatives would cost Washington state must appear on the November ballot where voters can see it, a judge ruled Friday.
The moves to repeal the state’s landmark Climate Commitment Act and the tax on stock and bond sales, as well as a tax that could jeopardize a long-term care insurance program, require financial disclosures, said Justice Allyson Zipp Thurston County Superior Court in bench ruling. The decision is based on a recent law that requires the attorney general to indicate how funding would be affected by initiatives that repeal, impose, or modify taxes or fees.
Opponents of the measures, who said they would have huge implications for the state’s ability to provide crucial services, praised the judge’s decision.
“Their lawsuit had one inexcusable purpose: to hide the truth about the impact of these initiatives from voters,” Aaron Ostrom, executive director of the progressive advocacy group FUSE Washington, said in a statement. “They know they will lose if voters understand what these destructive, deceptive initiatives actually do.”
Initiative author Jim Walsh, who filed a lawsuit with Deanna Martinez to keep the budget impact out of the vote, said in an email to The Associated Press that they were concerned the “warning label” could be “weaponized.”
“We don’t mind the idea of more information,” said Walsh, Republican Party chairman and state representative from Aberdeen. “What we worry about is that it will not be unbiased information. It will be partisan rhetoric, weaponized to make the initiatives sound bad. The fight isn’t over yet. We will continue to emphasize that we want unbiased, non-political information.”
Martinez is chairman of the Mainstream Republicans of Washington and serves on the Moses Lake City Council.
These initiatives are just some of those certified after the group Let’s Go Washington, which is primarily funded by hedge fund executive Brian Heywood, submitted hundreds of thousands of signatures in support of them. Initiatives that would give police more ability to chase people in vehicles, grant a range of rights to parents of public school students and ban an income tax were approved by lawmakers. Heywood did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Tim O’Neal, an analyst at the Washington Community Alliance, said in response to the decision that when voters don’t have all the facts, they are less likely to vote and have their voices heard.
“The Public Investment Impact Disclosure Act is important for building the transparency we need to increase voter confidence and participation in our constitutional democracy,” he said in a statement.
Initiative 2117 would repeal the state’s Climate Commitment Act, which aims to limit and reduce pollution while generating revenue for investments that address climate change. By 2023, it will have raised $1.8 billion through quarterly auctions that sell emissions allowances to companies covered by the law.
Initiative 2109 would repeal the tax imposed on the sale or exchange of stocks, bonds and other high-value assets, with exemptions for the first $262,000. Initiative 2124 will decide whether state residents must pay into Washington Cares, the state’s public long-term care insurance program.
Washington lawmakers passed a law in 2022 that would require descriptions of how much money initiatives would cost Washington to be printed on the ballot.
Walsh and Martinez argued that the law does not apply to the three measures and asked the court to ban Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson from making statements on its impact on the budget and to ban the Secretary of State prohibit certification of these statements.
But attorneys for the state say the public has a right under law to know the financial impact of an initiative.
Dr. Stephan Blanford, executive director of the Children’s Alliance, a nonpartisan child advocacy organization, said initiatives would give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires while cutting funding for education. He also said the move to repeal the capital gains tax would push the state’s education system further into the red.
“By jeopardizing $8.1 billion in long-term care funding, I-2124 will put more tax burden on millennials and Gen Z to pay for a tidal wave of Medicaid costs for aging Washingtonians, and healthcare costs for millions of middle Americans. income families,” he said.
The initiative to repeal the state’s carbon market “would allow more pollution across Washington, devastate funding for air, water and land protection, and reduce funding to prevent wildfires and transportation investments,” he said.
