Comment: Lawmakers, wealthy should consider I-2109’s rejection

By Dr. Stephan Blanford and Treasure Mackley / For The Herald

While some contests in Washington state were too close to call on election night, we knew immediately about one major, decisive victory in Washington state. Overwhelmingly, voters rejected Initiative 2109, maintaining the capital gains tax on the wealthy few when they make big profits on stock sales.

Voters didn’t just turn down mega-millionaire Brian Heywood’s demand for a tax break for himself and his rich pals, they voted against cutting billions of dollars in funding for child care and early learning programs and K-12 public schools.

For advocates for education and tax fairness like us, the result was welcome but not surprising news. We’ve spent the last four years helping to pass the capital gains tax, defending it from two legal challenges, shutting down the first attempt to repeal it, and then seeing its fate finally sealed with the defeat of I-2109.

In the process, we talked to families across the state who are desperate for more affordable child care options. We heard from teachers whose students have greater needs than ever and whose classrooms need repairs. Small business owners lauded the capital gains tax for the revenue used to create new child care slots their employees need and jobs that will benefit their communities. And taxpayers understood that if the capital gains tax was repealed, it would shift more tax pressure to small businesses and working families, affecting our entire economy.

Since the capital gains tax was introduced more than 10 years ago, voters’ views on it have shifted. Now more than ever they understand there is a yawning gap between the rich and the rest of us. That disparity only grew during the pandemic when those with assets in the stock market saw their net worths soar while so many of the rest of us saw our bank balances dwindle.

Voters recognize that Washington’s upside-down tax code benefits those at the top, who get away with contributing less while low- and middle-income earners pay more than our share in state and local taxes. The votes against I-2109 are votes in favor of requiring the super-wealthy to pay what they owe to our communities and our state.

In another sign of broad and growing support for the capital gains tax, more than 180 organizations — from the Washington State PTA to Washington State Public Health Association, Stand for Children to Low Income Housing Alliance — endorsed the No on I-2109 campaign. I-2109 earned rejections from eight newspapers across the state; not one paper endorsed it.

This newspaper’s editorial board wrote: “As the state confronts a growing need for child care that would allow more parents to pursue education and employment, as well as helping resolve persistent difficulties in funding K-12 education and school construction, passage of I-2109 represents charity to the state’s wealthiest that its residents cannot afford.”

What’s more, not a single legislator lost an election because of their vote to pass the capital gains tax in 2021. We hope lawmakers understand now what our public opinion research has consistently shown:

• Voters strongly support asking the wealthy to pay more;

• They want a fairer tax code, one that takes tax pressure off low- and middle-income earners as much as possible;

• Voters oppose cuts to funding for child care, early education and K-12 public schools, when students need resources and support more than ever.

As the election season wraps up and a new class of legislators heads to Olympia, we hope they write a new budget that avoids cuts to programs that families depend on. They can do so by asking the wealthy to pay what they truly owe in taxes and continuing to balance our tax code.

Initiative 2109 should be the last desperate act by rich conservatives to buy themselves a tax break. They have lost over and over again. Voters have the last word: mega-millionaires and billionaires, pay your share!

Dr. Stephan Blanford is the executive director of Children’s Alliance, a statewide children’s advocacy organization.

Treasure Mackley advocates for a fairer tax as the executive director of Invest in Washington Now.