Supporters of a Washington initiative to ban taxes based on personal income received the first item on their wish list yesterday, a public hearing before two legislative committees.
Washington doesn’t have a state income tax. Several ballot measures over the years have reinforced the public’s desire not to have one. But Initiative 2111 seeks to permanently stop the idea.
“Taxpayers are waking up to the fact that the problem isn’t more money for government, it’s a need for better policy. So this lack of trust is really the reason that this initiative is necessary and why it’s supported by so many Washington taxpayers. The people want to say as clearly as possible, enough is enough. Give us control of our checkbook back from the state,” said Steve Gordon from Concerned Taxpayers of Washington State during a hearing before a joint meeting of the Senate Ways and Means and House Finance committees.
Most who testified support the initiative submitted by the group Let’s Go Washington. Eric Pratt dialed in from the Olympic Peninsula.
“What we want is protection from future taxation. I’m a single father. I don’t get any supportive services from the state. I do so on my own income with two kids. If the tax burden increases, that becomes harder and harder for people like me to maintain and it takes services out of people who may need it,” he said.
The initiative is opposed by people who think the income tax is a potential fix to a regressive tax system that hurts regular people. They include Marcy Bowers from the Statewide Poverty Action Network.
“What we need is public investments to lift people up and to fund our basic safety net infrastructure. What we don’t need is to spend time debating proposals like this that are so vaguely worded that they don’t actually do anything,” she said.
The two committees that heard testimony yesterday are scheduled to vote separately on the proposal Friday morning. They could choose to advance it for further consideration; punt it to a statewide ballot in November; or change provisions of it and submit a new version that would run opposite the original proposal on the November ballot.
Two of Let’s Go Washington’s five other measures to the legislature will receive hearings on Wednesday.
Initiative 2081, dubbed a “Parents’ Bill of Rights,” calls for parents to have greater access to materials used to teaching their children and allow them opt their students out of programs such as sexual education. The House Education and Senate Early Learning and K-12 committees will hold a joint meeting to hear testimony, beginning at 8 am. Both committees have listed they will vote on the proposals Friday morning.
Initiative 2113 would restore police authority to conduct vehicular pursuits of criminal suspects believed to be fleeing the scene of a crime. Some of that authority was taken away by legislative reforms during the 2021 session. The Senate Law and Justice and House Community Safety, Justice and Reentry committees will commence their hearing at 9. Both are scheduled to vote on the bill Friday morning.
