WA GOP chair: Cities opposed to initiatives motivated by potential loss of revenue

Washington cities, including Vancouver, oppose several voter initiatives, with GOP claiming revenue loss drives these decisions. Image courtesy Unsplash

Vancouver among the Washington cities opposing voter initiatives

Spencer Pauley
The Center Square Washington

A number of Washington cities have approved declarations publicly opposing ballot initiatives on next month’s ballot, with at least initiative supporters hinting that money is playing a key role in these decisions by various city councils.

The four initiatives are as follows:

Business Industry Association of Washington-sponsored Initiative 2066 would repeal provisions of a new state law aimed at hastening Puget Sound Energy’s transition away from natural gas by prohibiting the state and all local governments from banning, restricting or discouraging the use of natural gas in new or existing homes or commercial buildings.

Initiative 2109, sponsored by voter advocacy group Let’s Go Washington, would repeal the state’s capital gains tax, a 7% levy on the sale or exchange of long-term capital assets. Money brought in from the tax goes toward education and child care programs. Let’s Go Washington sponsored the other two initiatives as well.

Initiative 2117 would end the state’s cap-and-trade program under the 2021 Climate Commitment Act.

Initiative 2124 would make the state’s WA Cares long-term care program optional.

The list of cities opposing I-2117 so far includes Seattle, Sammamish, Redmond, Burien, Kenmore, Shoreline, Tacoma, Sammamish, Vancouver, and Lake Forest Park.

The Spokane City Council is set to vote on a resolution opposing I-2117 as well.

Bellingham, Vancouver, Olympia, Kenmore, Redmond, and Sammamish have also come out in opposition to anywhere from one to all four of the initiatives.

Washington State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh, also a state representative from Aberdeen, is the author and sponsor of the three Let’s Go Washington initiatives.

He called these cities’ actions against the initiatives performative stunts that are an attempt to scare voters.

“Now, the bumbling billionaires against the people’s initiatives are pressuring partisan local governments – several city councils and at least one county council [King County] – on the west side of the state to pass theatrical ‘resolutions’ attacking the reforms,” Walsh told The Center Square in an email.

According to Walsh, local councils are approving these resolutions in part due to the potential loss of revenue from these initiatives, as well as virtue signaling from progressive city and county officials.

“The same tech bros who hate the reforms fund the limousine left in cities like Bellingham, Olympia, and Seattle, but the answer involves more than just money – empty virtue-signaling has become the signature characteristic of the partisan left in Washington,” Walsh added. “Their egos and vanity are desperate for recognition.”

Walsh said city and county officials feel the need to be seen as progressive even if the policies they support hurt working-class people, resulting in the passage of measures publicly opposing the ballot measures.

City officials have previously said that these four ballot measures collectively eliminate funding for education and childcare programs, hinder progress toward clean-energy goals, and create a large hole in the state’s budget.

Despite some local governments approving resolutions publicly opposing these four ballot measures, not all council members are in agreement with the decision.

For instance, during a city council meeting on Oct. 1, Sammamish City Councilmember Kent Treen said government bodies should not take a lead role or voice their opinions about initiatives that residents brought forward.

Each of the four initiatives successfully gathered at least the minimum 324,516 signatures required for certification.

This report was first published by The Center Square Washington.