Vote NO on Initiative 2109 - Say NO to cuts to funding for childcare and education

  • Initiative 2109 would give the wealthiest 0.2% of Washingtonians an unnecessary tax cut and eliminate over $5 billion in critical funding for childcare, early learning, and school construction in the next six years. 

  • It undoes one of the most equitable fixes to our state tax code in 90 years – the capital gains excise tax. 

  • Eliminating the capital gains excise tax now will send school districts scrambling. Revenue from the capital gains tax supports public education, child care, early learning, and school construction projects. The Washington State Office of Financial Management estimates that the capital gains tax will generate over $5.2 billion in revenue through 2029.

  • Already, Whidbey’s school districts are facing budget shortfalls requiring difficult choices about which teachers and staff to keep on the payroll, and which courses and programs the districts can afford to maintain.

Background: Washington State is one of only seven states without a state income tax. Instead, our state has historically relied on a system of regressive taxes and fees that, comparted to high income homes, take a disproportionate bite out of the income of wage-earning families, seniors and people on disability. Sales taxes, gas taxes, property taxes and car licensing fees are just some examples that take a larger percentage of income from those who can least afford it. (1)

 To help right the state’s upside-down tax structure, in 2021 the Democratic legislature passed a new capital gains tax (2) to fund public education and school construction. The new 7% tax applies only to the state’s super wealthy individuals - so far, that's about 3,700 households who profited more than$250,000 in one year from selling assets such as stocks and bonds. The state has a total of 3 million households, 2.99 million of which are NOT paying this tax. 

That the legislature directed the new capital gains tax revenue to go to schools is intentional: the state constitution mandates that the state will pay for basic education and the costs of education and school construction are going up. Without the new revenue, the state legislature and school districts would have to add to property taxes, B&O taxes and sales taxes. 

Even though Washington schools require increased state funding and even though the tax applies to a small slice of Washington households, Republicans have aggressively opposed it every step of the way; first they sued, claiming it was unconstitutional - but they lost at the Washington Supreme Court. Then they took it to the US Supreme Court, but lost again when, in January 2024, the Court declined to hear their appeal.

Then wealthy Republican donors and the Republican party spent over $6 million for paid signature gatherers and advertising to place initiatives on the November ballot - including Initiative 2109 to repeal the state’s capital gains tax. It’s a shocking amount of money, funded largely by one wealthy man – Brian Heywood of Redmond. The citizen sponsor for the initiative is state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, who is also chairman of the Washington State Republican Party.

What happens if the tax is repealed? A budget shortfall of $941 million - $1.09 billion during fiscal years 2026 to 2029, according to estimates prepared by the state Department of Revenue. (The state’s operating budget for 2024 which covers most day-to-day government operations, public schools, state colleges and universities, is around $71 billion.)

A NO on I-2109 is a YES to prioritizing funding for Washington’s schools and school-aged children.