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Washington judge denies GOP attempt to keep financial impact of initiatives off November ballot
Information about how much money three GOP-backed initiatives would cost Washington state must appear on the November ballot where voters can see it, a judge ruled Friday.
Measures to revoke the state landmark Climate Commitment Law and sales tax on stocks and bonds, as well as one that could threaten a long-term care insurance program, require financial disclosures, Thurston County Superior Court Judge Allyson Zipp said in a court ruling . The decision is based on a recent law that requires the state attorney general to explain how funding would be affected by initiatives that repeal, impose or change any tax or fee.
Opponents of the measures, who said they would have huge impacts on the State’s ability to provide critical services, praised the judge’s decision.
“Their lawsuit had an inexcusable purpose: to hide from voters the truth about the impacts of these initiatives,” Aaron Ostrom, executive director of the progressive advocacy organization FUSE Washington, said in a statement. “They know they will lose if voters understand what these destructive and misleading initiatives actually do.”
Initiative author Jim Walsh, who along with Deanna Martinez sued to keep the fiscal impact outside the votesaid in an email to the Associated Press that they were concerned the “warning label” was “weaponized.”
“We don’t mind the idea of more information, said Walsh, chairman of the state Republican Party and state representative from Aberdeen. “What worries us is that it will not be impartial information. It will be partisan rhetoric, used as a weapon to make initiatives look bad. The fight is not over. We will continue to maintain that we want unbiased, non-political information.”
Martinez is the chairman of Washington’s top Republicans and serves on the Moses Lake city council.
O initiatives are just some certified after the Let’s Go Washington group, 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 greater ability to pursue people in vehicles, declare a series of rights for parents of public school students and ban the collection of income taxes have been approved by lawmakers. Heywood did not immediately respond to a voicemail seeking comment.
Tim O’Neal, an analyst with the Washington Community Alliance, said in response to the ruling that when voters don’t have all the facts, they are less likely to vote and their voice will be heard.
“The public investment impact disclosure law is important to build the transparency necessary 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 creating revenue for investments that address climate change. It raised US$1.8 billion in 2023 through quarterly auctions in which emission licenses are sold to companies covered by the law.
Initiative 2109 would repeal the tax charged 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 requires descriptions of how much money initiatives would cost Washington to be printed on ballot boxes.
Walsh and Martinez argued that the law does not apply to the three measures and asked the court to prohibit Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson from preparing statements about their fiscal impact and to prevent the secretary of state from certifying those statements.
But lawyers for the state said that under the law, the public has a right to know the financial impact of an initiative.
Dr. Stephan Blanford, executive director of the Children’s Alliance, a nonpartisan child advocacy organization, said the 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 committing $8.1 billion in long-term care funding, I-2124 will put more fiscal pressure on millennials and Gen Z to pay a wave of state Medicaid costs for Washington seniors and increase the cost of care for millions of middle-class people. income families,” he said.
The move to repeal the state’s carbon market “would allow more pollution in Washington, devastate funding for air, water and land protection, and cut funding for wildfire prevention and transportation investments,” he said.