Washington legislators are preparing for their 2024 session, which begins January 8. But some are keeping their eyes on a group called Let’s Go Washington, a Redmond-based organization run by a Republican donor named Brian Heywood.
The group has filed six initiatives to the legislature and as of late last week, had returned signatures to the Secretary of State’s office for at least two of them. One is a parental notification measure that gives parents more authority to get material from their local schools that’s related to their children. The other would repeal the state’s carbon tax, which some believe has added more than 40-cents-a-gallon to the price of gas in Washington.
The group didn’t respond to a request for an interview about its initiatives, but on a video posted on the Let’s Go Washington website, Heywood talked about why he wants to repeal the carbon tax.
“I don’t think they were honest with the voters," he said.
"What they should have said is we don’t like gasoline cars. We don’t like the selling of gasoline. We’d like to make it so expensive that you can’t afford to do it anymore, so we’re going to do this carbon tax scheme. If they would have said that, that would have been an honest conversation with the voting public. Instead, they said, well, it’s going to save children and the environment and baby seals. Therefore, you need to do it, but it won’t cost you anything," Heywood said.
The group's other initiatives would (1) remove some restrictions on when police can pursue fleeing suspects; (2) allow workers to opt out of the state's new long-term care insurance program; (3) repeal Washington's capital gains tax; and (4) prohibit the state and all local governments from imposing income taxes.
All of the legislators who spoke last week at a legislative forum sponsored by Greater Spokane said they doubt that any of the initiatives, even if they receive sufficient signatures, will make many waves in Olympia next year. Part of that is timing. The 2024 session will only be 60 days and there's little time to prepare for a new addition to the agenda.
Part of it is political. Democratic leaders, including Governor Jay Inslee and Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig of Spokane, think the majority of Washingtonians don't agree with the ideas espoused by the measures.
“Most of the initiatives represent a rollback of progress that we’ve made as a state with investments and child care and K-12 education and policies that have made our state safer and cleaner and these initiatives generally roll that back," he said.
The Republican legislative leader, Rep. Drew Stokesbary from Auburn, who spoke at the Greater Spokane forum, thinks they're misreading the public on some of the issues, including the carbon tax, which some observers believe is responsible for adding to up 45-cents-a-gallon to the price of gasoline.
"I think they [the initiatives] are all polling very strongly and I think part of our job as legislators is to balance what we think is right with what our constituents want us to do," he said. "The people don't want an income tax. The people don't want to pay the highest gas prices in the country."
Heywood’s group has until December 29 to return signatures to the Secretary of State. The legislature can approve any initiative that receives a sufficient number of signatures. It can refuse to act and send initiatives directly to the ballot in November. Or it can change an initiative, approve and send its version and the original version to the ballot.
