The Democrats who currently control the Legislature should uphold our state constitution by giving proper attention to Initiative 2109, which would repeal Washington’s capital gains tax. It is one of the six initiatives submitted to the Legislature by the people of Washington.
Instead, they are already attacking the initiative by defending the capital-gains income tax, using our children as their excuse. The most prominent example is from the Senate majority leader, who recently declared that the passage of Initiative 2109 would “reduce K-12 funding and devastate early learning and childcare programs.”
Wrong. Approving Initiative 2109 would simply force state government to prioritize. Sen. Lynda Wilson of Vancouver, our Senate Republican budget leader, summed it up like this when the measure was certified by the secretary of state a few weeks ago: “The capital-gains tax doesn’t pay for anything that can’t be funded with other revenue. Government can get along just fine without it, and let the people keep more of their own money.”