(The Center Square) – The Washington Secretary of State’s Office has certified an initiative that would prohibit any government in the state from enacting an income tax.
Initiative 2111 is the fifth of six voter initiatives submitted to SOS in December by Let’s Go Washington. If enacted, the initiative would reinstate a 1984 state law banning local governments from enacting a tax on net income. That state law was later overturned in a 2019 Court of Appeals decision related to a Seattle income tax ordinance, which was also struck down.
Currently an income tax is legal in Washington state, but per constitutional restrictions it must be a flat rate tax. The state constitution requires all property taxes be uniform, and the state Supreme Court has ruled for more than 80 years that income is considered property under the constitution’s definition that “include everything, whether tangible or intangible, subject to ownership.”
For years and following numerous failed efforts to amend the constitution, proponents of a progressive income tax have sought to get the state Supreme Court to overrule prior rulings.
The high court evaded the question of whether income was considered property last year, when it upheld the state’s tax on the income derived from the sale of capital gains by treating it as an excise tax.
A separate initiative already certified by SOS would repeal that tax.
In a press release statement, Let’s Go Washington Founder Brian Heywood said that “the enthusiasm of everyday citizens to sign an initiative preventing a potential income tax was heartwarming. Washington voters have already rejected an income tax at the ballot box ten times.”
He added “We’re going to put a stake in the heart of this never-ending greedy money grab by Olympia. No more sneaky workarounds at the city or county level and no more dishonest attempts to give an income tax a different name. I-2111 will make the will of the voters crystal clear, once and for all – no income taxes. Period.”
