Initiative to prohibit state income tax in Washington gets first hearing at Legislature
An initiative to prohibit the state, counties and local governments from imposing any future tax on income was heard Tuesday, Feb. 27, before a joint session of the House Finance and Senate Ways and Means Committees in Olympia.
More than 6,000 people signed into the hearing in support of I-2111, while nearly 650 signed in opposition to the proposal.
I-2111 is one of six initiatives sponsored by Let’s Go Washington and was certified by the Secretary of State in January, prompting Republican lawmakers and supporters of the initiatives to press Democratic leadership for hearing dates before the Legislature adjourns on March 7. It is the first initiative to get a hearing this session.
Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, spoke in support of the initiative during the hearing, noting that he was the one who filed I-2111 with the Secretary of State.
“Initiative 2111 is designed to do one thing, and that is to codify in law the state’s longstanding tradition of not having an income tax based on personal income,” Walsh said.
Walsh added that the initiative was “drafted narrowly so that it only applies to personal income” and said he believed the initiative would also prevent any future tax policy maneuvers aimed at establishing an income tax.
Others spoke in opposition to I-2111.
Marcy Bowers, executive director for the Statewide Poverty Action Network, told the committee Feb. 27 that the organization was opposed to the initiative because “it doesn’t do anything for Washingtonians.”
“What we need is public investments to lift people up and to fund our basic safety net infrastructure,” she said. “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.”
If I-2111 is passed by the Legislature or adopted by voters, it will not repeal or impact any current taxes or tax structures in the state, rather it would only apply to future enacted taxes on gross income, said Steve Ewing, a legislative and external affairs liaison for the Washington state Department of Revenue.
Washington does not have a tax on personal income, and has one of the most regressive tax structures in the country because it relies heavily on sales tax.
In 1932 the Washington State Supreme Court declared a voter-approved income tax unconstitutional, and since then multiple attempts to get an income tax approved by voters have failed.
Only two other initiatives including one for parental rights and one to rollback police pursuit laws will be heard by lawmakers in addition to the income tax initiative heard Feb. 27.
Democratic lawmakers have said they will not hold hearings for the other three measures including an initiative to repeal the capital gains tax and an initiative to repeal portions of the Climate Commitment Act, so those initiatives will go straight to the Nov. 5 ballot.
According to the Secretary of State website, Washington was one of the first states to adopt an initiative and referendum process to provide a check over the Legislature in 1912.
