While every legislative session makes history to some degree, the 2024 session is on track to be in a class of its own. Credit for that goes not to lawmakers but to 800,000-plus people in our state who chose to pursue their right to make laws directly.
By “right to make laws directly,” I mean the initiative power granted by Washington’s constitution. In this case, it’s the kind of initiative that goes to the legislature rather than directly to the people.
It’s uncommon for a single initiative to win enough voter signatures to receive certification from the secretary of state. Multiples are extremely rare: Only six times in the past 110 years have two initiatives to the legislature been certified in the same year, and only in 1972 were there three in one year.
Here in 2024, I’m expecting to see the record smashed with certification of six initiatives to the legislature, which collectively received a whopping 2.6 million signatures. One has already been certified by the secretary of state, and we’ll know about the rest in the next few weeks.
Four of the initiatives would essentially repeal the restrictions on police pursuits, the capital-gains income tax, the long-term care payroll tax, and the governor’s cap-and-trade law, officially known as the Climate Commitment Act — which is responsible for adding about 50 cents to the cost of each gallon of gas in the past year alone. These were created by majority Democrats in 2021 or have taken effect since then.
Another initiative would prohibit a full-blown state income tax, and the remaining one would strengthen parental rights.
The Senate Republican priorities for 2024 are a safer Washington, an affordable Washington, and a better future for Washington’s children. Although nothing requires majority Democrats to give consideration to our priorities and supporting legislation, they can’t ignore citizen initiatives. Once certified, those measures must either be enacted or be placed on the November ballot just as an initiative to the people would.
On top of that, Article II, Section 1 of the state Constitution requires initiatives to the legislature to “take precedence over all other measures in the legislature except appropriation bills.” That’s a duty we should uphold.
The response from leading Democrats has been revealing. Speaking to reporters Jan. 4, the top Democrat in the House basically deplored how the initiatives even got this far, then denied she was being dismissive of the voters who signed initiative petitions — about 823,000 people in all, according to an independent analysis of signatures.
The Senate’s leading Democrat told those same reporters that if the initiatives become law, it would roll back the “progress” his side has made in recent years. Then he added he has great confidence the people will make the right decision. Let’s remember that.
In his Jan. 9 state-of-the-state address to members of the Senate and House, the governor avoided direct references to the initiatives, claiming instead that a delay in his climate agenda would be a “betrayal of our children’s future.”
Imagine being a parent whose children continue to struggle in school, and hearing absolutely nothing from the governor about helping students recover the learning opportunities lost to remote instruction during the pandemic. It seems clear to me how being unable to read and do math at grade level could affect a child’s future.
The initiative to repeal the police-pursuit restrictions, Initiative 2113, is the first to be certified by the secretary of state. How the majority handles it will offer some insight about the other five if and when they are certified.
Against this backdrop, Senate Democrats are resuming their attack on the law limiting the growth rate of property taxes to no more than 1% per year. While that cap was enacted by the Legislature during a special session in 2007, it was originally passed via Initiative 747.
You can’t make this up: as the secretary of state gets closer to validating initiatives that target taxes, Democrat leaders move toward taking up to $12 billion in additional taxes! The Senate Ways and Means hearing on Senate Bill 5770, which would triple the allowable growth rate of property taxes, is set for Thursday, Jan. 18.
Washingtonians are paying more than enough taxes already. Their legislators must do better.
Sen. John Braun of Centralia serves the 20th Legislative District, which spans parts of four counties from Yelm to Vancouver. He became Senate Republican leader in 2020.
