Note: The following e-newsletter was sent to Sen. Jeff Wilson’s subscribers Feb. 22, 2024. To subscribe to Sen. Wilson’s updates from Olympia, click here.
Dear Friends and Neighbors,
We’ve had a big surprise in Olympia. After nearly two months of silence, our majority Democratic colleagues in the House and Senate have announced they will allow hearings on three of the six initiatives submitted by the people this year to the Legislature.
This doesn’t mean they will permit votes on them, or are willing to pass them. But it does mean you will have a chance to tell the Legislature what you think about restoring police pursuits, banning income taxes and affirming parental rights. The Legislature’s sign-up system allows you to put your opinion on the record.
The links below lead to Web pages that allow you to tell the Legislature where you stand on these initiatives. On each page, click on “select agenda item” and choose the initiative listed. You can sign in to register your opinion, present written testimony, or testify, either in-person or remotely. Registration closes one hour before each hearing begins.
I-2111 would ban a personal income tax in Washington. The people have voted no on an income tax 11 straight times.
Click here to watch this hearing on TVW, live or repeat.
I-2081 would create greater government transparency and require schools and health-care providers to inform parents or legal guardians of services provided to a minor child.
Click here to watch this hearing on TVW, live or repeat.
I-2113 restores the ability of police to pursue criminals and suspects, based on a standard of “reasonable suspicion.” Most police pursuits were banned in 2021, though some have been restored for specific violent crimes.
Click here to watch this hearing on TVW, live or repeat.
For more information about this year’s initiatives, click here.
What happens next?
Although hearings are being held on these three initiatives, we still don’t know whether our colleagues will permit the House and Senate to vote on them. Under our constitution, there are only three options when initiatives are submitted to the Legislature. It can pass them, it can reject them and allow them to proceed to the ballot, or it can vote to place alternative measures on the ballot.
However, hearings are not being scheduled on three other initiatives submitted to the Legislature this year, meaning those measures are sure bets to advance to the ballot. They are:
- Initiative 2117 – Repealing cap-and-trade, which has boosted gas prices about 50 cents a gallon.
- Initiative 2109 – Repealing the capital gains income tax, Washington’s first stab at an income tax, and a major hit on small business and tech startups.
- Initiative 2124 – Ending the mandatory payroll tax for long-term care, by allowing Washington workers to opt out of the troubled WA Cares insurance program.
The hearings set up a fascinating drama for the final days of the 2024 session, which is set to adjourn March 7. All six of these measures challenge centerpieces of the “progressive” program our Democratic colleagues have passed these last several years. Will our colleagues repudiate part of their program in hopes the voters will spare the rest? Stay tuned – the final two weeks of our legislative session is bound to contain more surprises.
In the news:
A warning about warning labels – new law aims to thwart initiatives
Note: This op-ed was published in The (Centralia) Chronicle Feb. 21 and has been updated to reflect the possibility of action on three initiatives.
By Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview
Democrats are telling us Initiative 2109 will blow a $5.6 billion hole in the state budget. That’s the initiative to repeal the state’s new income tax on capital gains.
They say it will devastate education, child care and early learning. It’s “even worse than we thought,” the Senate Democratic leader declared in a recent press release.
Oh yes, the sky is falling.
These wild exaggerations show how desperate our colleagues are to retain an income tax they passed with the hope they might someday expand it into a general income tax on everyone. Never mind that the people of the state are dead-set opposed.
But there is another meaning we can read into this argument. This is a preview of a tactic that will be used to frighten voters this election season, when this initiative and as many as five others are likely to appear on the ballot. For the first time, we will see a state-sanctioned smear campaign in which the might and power of government will be misused to convince the people of Washington to vote no.
Starting this year, the state attorney general will be permitted — required, actually — to write warning labels for any initiative that reduces taxes or fees. These 15-word “public investment statements” will appear in the state voters’ pamphlet, mandated by a new state law.
So get set for something like “WARNING: The Attorney General has determined that voting yes is hazardous to Washington’s health.”
The statements won’t use those words, but they will have the same meaning. Of the six initiatives that are advancing this year, we will see warnings on at least three of them. As the ranking Republican on the State Government and Elections Committee, I want to take this opportunity to cry foul — while I still can.
This law is an insidious effort to interfere with initiative campaigns in our state, passed in 2022 when everyone knew an initiative like 2109 was coming. Ordinarily this ballot measure would be a slam dunk — the people have voted against an income tax 11 times. Our colleagues needed an edge, and House Bill 1876 was their solution. Republicans voted no, but Democrats had the votes to pass it.
At the time, they said this was a measure to “promote transparency.” So, what’s the matter with telling voters how a tax-revolt initiative will affect the state government?
Well, many voters rely on the voters’ pamphlet as an objective source of information. You have a statement for an initiative, and you have a statement against it; everything else is neutral. Now we’ll have the attorney general putting his thumb on the scale with a factual-sounding statement about budgetary devastation, a hit to schools, maybe putting old people out into the snow. Those of us who serve in the Legislature know how ridiculous this argument is.
For one thing, on this particular initiative, we’re talking about repealing an income tax that has only been collected once, in 2023. It proved a billion-dollar windfall for the state. That $5.6 billion figure our friends are using is through 2029. They presume we won’t chase tax-generating activity out of state, which is already happening. And even without this new income tax, our public schools would still be getting more money than they did before it passed. That’s hardly devastation.
Bigger than that, the idea that any particular program is harmed by any particular tax cut is political nonsense. It’s always a matter of spending priorities. If the people tell us to cut taxes, we can take the money from the Department of Waste, the Bureau of Redundancy or the Office of Less Important Things. Most of the time we don’t even need to do that. Our tax receipts usually grow so much from year to year that we can paper over any gaps. Even without this unneeded income tax, state taxes doubled in a decade.
These new warning labels will tell only part of the story, and they will be a pretty sketchy version of the truth at that.
Sadly, this is the only chance I will have to offer this warning about warning labels, via official means. I am permitted to discuss this year’s initiatives only because they were submitted to the Legislature this year for our approval. Unless we are allowed to vote, they proceed to the ballot. Once we adjourn March 7, legislative ethics rules sensibly won’t allow me to use my office to advocate a position.
What galls me is that our attorney general is allowed to use his office to mislead the public right up to election day.
∙∙∙
Sen. Jeff Wilson, R-Longview, is ranking Republican on the Senate State Government and Elections Committee
Thanks for reading — it is an honor serving you.
Sen. Jeff Wilson
19th Legislative District
Contact me!
Telephone: (360) 786-7636
Email: Jeff.Wilson@leg.wa.gov
Mailing address: P.O. Box 40419 /Olympia, WA 98504
Leave a message on the Legislative Hotline: 1-800-562-6000
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