Study your ballot & Statewide Initiatives in WA
Get to know your ballot ahead of election day
I have been wearing lots of Harris Walz merch around Seattle recently. I frequently get friendly comments from people about how excited they are to vote. Last week during my commute, I was waiting at a crosswalk sporting a Kamala sweatshirt and a woman urgently rolled down her window to yell “I love your shirt” before driving on. The excitement and nervousness around the presidential election is palpable.
Shortly after this interaction, I walked around the corner and saw a banner outside a progressive church encouraging people to “Vote No” on Washington’s ballot initiatives across the board. Seeing this made me realize that I’m spending so much energy on the presidential race that I hadn’t closely read the rest of my ballot. And when I went home and studied it, I realized there’s a lot at stake.
Wherever you vote, I encourage you to research your ballot in advance for local and state initiatives and races down ballot. While national elections are important (especially this year), state and local elections often have a more tangible impact on our-day to-day lives.
One of the benefits of being a Washington resident is the ability to vote by mail, which provides time to work through the ballot and read about candidates and issues – pen in hand. If you don’t have this option, I encourage you to take time to read a sample ballot now so you can do your homework before casting your vote from the booth.
Here are some resources to get to know your ballot. They also help you find your polling place and register to vote if you haven’t already:
Statewide Initiatives in WA
For those of us voting in WA, some of the most critical items on the ballot are statewide initiatives, and they take some time to read and comprehend. There are four statewide initiatives on the ballot and it’s important to understand how and why they got there in the first place.
Washington has a long history of ballot initiatives dating back to 1912, which allow citizens to remake laws directly if they have enough support and meet certain criteria. For example, in 2012, Washington voters legalized both same-sex marriage and recreational marijuana through ballot measures.
This year is a bit different.
All four statewide initiatives are bankrolled by Brian Heywood, a wealthy hedge fund manager who moved here from California and who personally spent $7 million to get these initiatives on the ballot. He founded the special interest PAC Let's Go Washington, and for the last 2 years has attempted to repeal nearly a dozen pieces of progressive legislation passed by the state legislature in recent years.
All four statewide initiatives aim to repeal existing laws rather than propose new laws. These initiatives would roll back the biggest landmark legislative wins of recent years like the capital gains tax for education funding, the Climate Commitment Act, and long term care benefits.
It's worth noting that while Let's Go Washington is using messaging to voters that they will save money, these initiatives would do the opposite. A new law in Washington requires that if an initiative has budget impacts, voters see language on their ballot that tells them about the impact. Notably, 3 of the 4 initiatives cut funding for critical services that most Washingtonians rely on.
Initiative Specifics
Below is an explanation of each initiative with links to Vote WA so you can read the text, explanatory statement, fiscal impact statement, and arguments for and against to form your own opinions.
Initiative 2066: Climate & Natural Gas
Initiative 2066 would repeal certain provisions of the Washington Decarbonization Act (HB 1589) which regulates Puget Sound Energy and supports the gradual transition away from fossil fuels and toward electrification. The Initiative was primarily funded by the Building Industry Association of Washington, a right wing lobby group, with Brian Heywood’s Let’s Go Washington political committee providing infrastructure and logistics. They essentially want to stop the transition to clean energy and remove the need for utility companies to plan for this transition.
Misinformation abounds on this one. Initiative backers claim this is a natural gas ban and that the government is “coming for our stoves.” In response, Puget Sound Energy put out the following statement:
“There has been a lot of misinformation about HB 1589 as it changed over the course of two legislative sessions, from when it was first introduced in January 2023 to passage by the legislature in March 2024. HB 1589 does not include a ban on natural gas, and it does not change PSE’s obligation to serve natural gas to our customers.”
Initiative 2066 would raise energy costs by $150 a year or more by rolling back energy efficiency upgrades and repealing common sense protections which can help during storms, wildfires, and heat waves. If passed, the initiative would force utility companies to keep spending on outdated technology and put the extra cost on working people’s bills and weaken Washington’s Clean Air Act, undoing measures that protect against air pollution.
Initiative 2109: Capital Gains Tax & Education Funding
Initiative 2109 would repeal Washington state’s limited capital gains tax, slashing more than $2.2 billion from public education, childcare, and early learning in order to give fewer than 4,000 of the wealthiest people in Washington a tax cut.
The tax was passed by the Washington State Legislature in 2021 and imposes a tax on the sale of long-term capital assets, which is measured on capital gains exceeding $250,000. In addition to excluding the first $250,000 in capital gains profits, lawmakers also exempted any profits from real estate, retirement accounts, the sale of family-owned small businesses, timber and timberlands, livestock, commercial fishing privileges, and goodwill received from the sale of an auto dealership. This ensures it almost exclusively applies to profits from the sale of stocks and similar assets among those at the very top in Washington – truly the wealthiest 0.2 percent of taxpayers.
In 2023, the Washington Supreme Court struck down an appeal, and a US Supreme Court declined to review the case further, so the policy has fully worked its way through the court system and been upheld. The initiative is the final attempt to strike down the law.
This is the initiative I personally feel most strongly about. At a time where public education in our state is woefully underfunded, and my parent group chats are filled with concern locally about Seattle Public Schools, upholding this tax seems critical to me.
In its first year, Washington’s capital gains tax funded early learning and schools to the tune of nearly $900 million. Eliminating this funding means childcare programs will be cut, schools will stay under-resourced, much-needed repairs and construction of schools will grind to a halt.
Our state has one of the most regressive tax codes in the country, with most revenue coming from sales tax, which impacts lower wage earners more significantly. To have a tax apply to only a very small number of residents and to benefit so many directly through funding education is a huge win for our state. As a wealth advisor, I have clients that pay this tax. They generally support the idea that living in communities with well funded schools benefits them too.
Initiative 2117: Climate & Co2 Emissions
Initiative 2117 would repeal the “Climate Commitment Act,” (CCA) Washington’s new cap-and-trade law that puts a fee on CO2 emissions from big oil companies and other corporations.
Initiative 2117 would roll back protections for our air and water, forests and farmlands, jobs and transportation system and allow more pollution. Instead of a fee on pollution being paid by a few big polluters, it would shift the bill of paying for the impact of pollution onto communities, workers, and families. I-2117 will strip away funding from every county in Washington, including funding for:
Programs that lower costs for Washingtonians, like utility bill discounts for households with low incomes
Clean air and water, like programs to reduce air pollutants in places that are most impacted
Programs to prevent wildfires
Transportation, putting transit service, ferries, and road projects across Washington at risk
Support for Tribal Nations, like programs to help keep Native communities safe from flooding and sea level rise
Fish habitat and salmon recovery
Initiative 2124: WA Cares & Long Term Care Benefits
The WA Cares Fund was created by the Legislature in 2019 to help Washingtonians access long-term care benefits. It is one of the first public services of its kind in the country – offering an affordable, guaranteed benefit to help cover the costs of long-term care. Washington’s long-term care benefit is a safety net, like Social Security or Medicare, set up to allow seniors, and disabled or severely ill adults, to cover important expenses that are not currently covered by traditional health insurance or Medicare.
Benefits start at $36,500 in 2026 (growing to as much as $60,000 in 20 years, indexed to inflation). Benefits cover: home care aide; family member’s care time; wheelchairs, hospital beds, lifts, and other equipment; ramps, grab bars, and other home modifications; and residential care. The WA Cares Fund is funded through a payroll tax on anyone working in the state, unless they are exempt. Starting in July 2023, all working Washingtonians automatically contribute 0.58% of their paycheck to the fund. The initiative would make paying the tax optional, effectively bankrupting the program for everyone.
Lawmakers have steadily strengthened Washington’s long term care benefit — first making near-retirees eligible, even if they work part-time. Washingtonians who have paid into the program can keep their benefits even if they move out of state for work, family, or retirement.
The reality is that long term care policies through the private insurance market are expensive, and most people cannot afford them. And if they can afford them, they have likely experienced their premiums increase dramatically. Many people with pre-existing conditions cannot access long-term care insurance to begin with. Eliminating these benefits will cause more people, mostly women, to provide unpaid care and would increase out of pocket costs, and in some instances, force people to drain their savings and sign over their homes to qualify for Medicaid.
I believe this policy fills a critical unmet need, and we need to be bold and experimental in order to solve big problems. The program will undoubtedly be refined over the years. With Harris announcing that she supports Medicare paying for in-home care expenses, I’m curious to see how these policies will coordinate over time. But making the tax optional will erase any chance we have of realizing the benefits of this safety net.
I will be voting NO across all 4 initiatives.
If you’d need more information before deciding, I encourage you to use the resources in this post to make educated decisions before casting your vote.
Sources:
Thanks to Defend Washington, Progress Alliance, Powerhouse Strategic, and Fuse Washington for their contributions to this post.
https://www.thecentersquare.com/washington/article_4496751c-f071-11ee-8146-73fac6fee36b.html
