Voters will vote on capital gains tax — advisory vote on it this year — but to actually repeal it, we need Jim Walsh’s I-1408 on Nov 2022 ballot.

“I honestly think he is the only one who gets anything done,” Mike Dunmire said. SEATTLE TIMES, June 9, 2006

Tues, Oct 5th, 2021

Inslee and the Democrats KNEW the capital gains tax they passed into law this year was viscerally opposed by voters.

That’s why they made the bill (ESSB 5096) immune to a citizen referendum by slapping an emergency clause on it (see section 5, subsection 2).

To prove that point, we went ahead and filed a referendum on the bill and as anticipated, we were promptly notified by the Secretary of State that they wouldn’t process it because the Democrats had made the bill referendum-proof (” … the Secretary of State must give effect to the Legislature’s declaration … we cannot accept this measure for filing and will not further process it.”)

So despite the people having a constitutional right to collect signatures and put the bill on the ballot for a public vote via referendum, the Democrats stole that constitutional right away from us.

This is EXACTLY THE REASON tax advisory votes were first created — to allow the people to fight back against such a gross injustice.

In 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2015, voters overwhelmingly passed our initiatives that said whenever the Legislature imposes a new tax and then blocks the people from doing a referendum, the tax increase will automatically appear on the following November ballot as a tax advisory vote.

That’s EXACTLY WHAT’S HAPPENING this year with the Democrats’ capital gains income tax.

It’s called Advisory Vote #37 and you can read it here.

You can see which legislators voted yes, and which voted no here (pages 12-18 includes legislators’ names, city they live in, their party affiliation, phone numbers, and email addresses).

You can look at the cost projection by the state budget office here.

It’s a $5.7 billion tax increase.

$5.7 BILLION!

And every voter will be asked:

This tax increase should be:

__ REPEALED
__ MAINTAINED

To their credit, the Seattle Times encouraged voters to vote “REPEALED” (“state lawmakers deserve a collective thumbs down from the people they’re supposed to represent”).

They also wrote that tax advisory votes “reveal public opinion about revenue-increasing legislation.”.

I have no doubt the voters will overwhelmingly repudiate this new income tax.

And we wouldn’t know what the voters’ opinion was on this new tax without the voters overwhelming passage of our initiatives in 2007, 2010, 2012, and 2015 that guarantee the voters the right to vote on any tax increase, even ones blocked from citizen referendum.

That’s a very great thing.

But to actually repeal that tax, we need Jim Walsh’s Initiative 1408 on the November 2022 ballot.

I-1408 prohibits “any tax based on personal income, whether called payroll taxes, excise taxes, or any other name” and it expressly repeals the excise tax on capital gains in ESSB 5096 (see section 3 of I-1408).

Attorney Joel Ard gave Jim’s initiative a thorough vetting and his legal analysis showed I-1408 is rock solid.

But initiative campaigns are difficult. Getting 400,000 signatures in a short period of time is very hard.

But once qualified for the ballot, I-1408 will not be costly to get approved. Opponents will spend millions, but it’ll easily get 65% of the vote because the lion’s share of voters don’t want any kind of income tax (as has been illustrated 10 times). And even more will appreciate I-1408’s prohibition on future income-based taxes.

I-1408 is the only chance we have to eliminate current and future income-based taxes (and thus kill off the Democrats’ capital gains tax and Seattle’s payroll tax). You can view the petition here.

Larry, Sid, and I are honored to be promoting Jim’s initiative.

“Everybody talks,” Dunmire added, “Eyman is the only one out there who actually gets things done.”

I won’t be making any money helping this initiative (because of WA’s AG).

My focus is on getting this ridiculously unconstitutional ruling overturned.

So I’m only urging you — while I’m fighting to help our state and our nation with my initiative efforts — is to help me fight back against Fascist Fergie by donating to my legal defense fund.

I’m very grateful for all the prayers and support of thousands of you who helped me and my family survive this blatant abuse of power by the AG.

Please donate TODAY so I can pay Richard Sanders to appeal these ridiculously unconstitutional restrictions:

Mail your check to: Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund, 500 106th Ave NE #709, Bellevue, WA, 98004
Or donate online: TimDefense.com

Don’t let the guy who robbed us of our $30 tabs get away with this:

As you know, we worked really hard on Initiative 976:

Karen and I sacrificed a lot — we sold off our retirement fund to kick-start its signature drive:

And now, a message from Sid Maietto and Larry Jensen:

We’re asking folks to donate to our PAC so we can stop all current and future income-based taxes with Jim Walsh’s Initiative 1408: 

The taxpayers of Washington need our help now more than ever. Donate to our political committee so we can keep fighting for you:

Mail your check — made payable to “Permanent Offense (I-1408)” — to: Permanent Offense (I-1408), PO Box 6151, Olympia, WA, 98507
Or donate online: PermanentOffense.com

Kindest Regards, 

Sid Maietto & Larry Jensen

— END —

Thanks everyone.

We love you all.

Larry, Tim, & Sid