Washington Initiative 2109 (I-2109) is one of a series of initiatives that will appear on the ballot in November of 2024. I-2109 would repeal Washington's current capital gains tax on stock market profits greater than $250,000, eliminating nearly $900 million in yearly funding for early learning, child care, K-12 education, and school construction. This is a tax break for Washington’s millionaires and billionaires.
How should I vote on Initiative 2109?
You should vote “no.”
All of Washington's kids, no matter their zip code or how much money their parents earn, should have the same access to care and early learning. In its first year, our capital gains tax funded early learning and schools to the tune of nearly $900 million. This education funding has already prevented Washington’s childcare system from collapsing, avoiding the pitfalls that other states are facing.
The capital gains tax is paid by just 0.2% of Washingtonians, all of whom are extremely wealthy. A new report says this tax is one of the main reasons why Washington no longer has the most regressive tax code in the nation. Some of our state’s wealthiest people have tried to repeal this law (and failed), get it thrown out in court (and failed), and now they’re trying to convince voters to eliminate it so they don’t have to pay.
What would happen if Initiative 2109 passes?
Washington's kids would lose the $900 million per year that funds child care and early learning programs. A few wealthy people would rather deprive our kids of learning opportunities than pay what they actually owe in taxes.
Without this funding, child care programs would be cut, school class sizes would balloon, and much-needed repairs and construction of schools would grind to a halt. This would hurt working families who rely on care, students trying to learn in overcrowded classrooms, and rural communities who need overdue upgrades to crumbling school buildings.
Who is behind this initiative?
One MAGA multi-millionaire named Brian Heywood has personally spent more than $6 million bankrolling all of these initiatives in a cynical effort to buy him and his ultra-rich friends multiple tax cuts. He wants to roll back the ways our elected leaders have made life better in Washington in recent years with no care about the damage to our communities he leaves in his wake.
Each of these initiatives is sponsored in the Legislature by one of the most powerful MAGA-Republicans in Olympia. Now the Chair of Washington’s far right Republican Party, Rep. Jim Walsh is once again looking to impose his dangerous and unpopular agenda on all the people of Washington.
