Overview
- Supporters with Let's Go Washington handed more than 511,000 petition signatures to the Secretary of State in Tumwater on Thursday, a total well above the roughly 308,911 needed to qualify an Initiative to the People.
- The Secretary of State will use a statistical sample of the submitted petitions to validate signatures and decide whether I-645 qualifies for the November ballot, a process that typically plays out between July and November.
- The initiative targets Senate Bill 6346, the so-called millionaires tax that Gov. Bob Ferguson signed in March and that levies 9.9% on household income above $1 million with projected revenues of about $3 billion a year starting in 2029.
- Let's Go Washington says I-645 would repeal the income tax while preserving expansions to the Working Families Tax Credit and exemptions for items such as diapers and over-the-counter drugs, and it promises small-business filing relief.
- Opponents including Invest in Washington Now and the Washington Education Association warn the repeal would cut funding for schools and social programs, cite GBAO polling showing the measure trailing, and note a separate Klickitat County lawsuit challenging the tax could proceed to the State Supreme Court.