Key Findings

1. Initiative 2111 is a citizens’ initiative to the legislature to re-enact the popular ban on imposing a state or local income tax.
2. The initiative received over 446,000 signatures, more than 120,000 more than needed to qualify. Lawmakers can pass it, propose an alternative, or take no action.
3. If they do not pass the initiative, it will appear on the November 2024 ballot, possibly alongside an alternative proposed by the legislature.
4. An income tax is highly unpopular. Voters have rejected it 10 times, most recently in 2010 by a “no” vote of 64%.
5. In addition, bipartisan action by the legislature in 1984 enacted a ban on imposing a state or local income tax. After decades in place, this popular law was struck down by the state Court of Appeals in 2019.
6. The central principle of democracy is respecting the will of the people.  Initiative 2111 seeks to restore a public policy that has been successful and popularly supported for many decades.

Introduction

A group of concerned citizens called Let’s Go Washington has gathered enough signatures for a proposed people’s initiative to the legislature, Initiative 2111, which would ban state and local officials from imposing an income tax. 

Initiative sponsors needed to collect 324,516 valid signatures (8% of the votes cast in the last election for governor) by December 31st to submit the measure for consideration in the 2024 legislative session. Sponsors exceeded the requirement by more than 120,000, collecting more than 446,000 signatures and turned them in to the Secretary of State’s office by the December 31, 2023 deadline. The Secretary of State certified the initiative and sent it to the legislature on January 24, 2024.   

Under state law legislators can choose among three courses of action: 

• They can enact the initiative into law as is (the governor’s signature is not required); 
• They can take no action, in which case the initiative is forwarded to voters on the November 2024 general election ballot. If voters approve the initiative it becomes law; 
• They can pass their own alternative version, in which case both versions, the original and the legislature’s, will appear on the November 2024 ballot. Voters will first decide whether either version should become law and, if so, indicate on the same ballot which one should pass. 

READ THE FULL LEGISLATIVE MEMO HERE