SPOKANE, Wash. — After three of his ballot measures already got approved by the state legislature, Kirkland businessman Brian Haywood needs the voters to pass the remaining three to have a perfect record.
“You get one-party control and you get an arrogance in the legislature that they don’t give a crap about what the average person is concerned with,” Haywood said.
Among those three remaining proposals, a repeal of Washington’s capital gains tax. The 7% tax on those gaining more than $250,000 OIS a single year was passed in 2021. In a press release in February, Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig (D – Spokane) said the repeal would cost $5.6 billion from state funding to childcare and education.
“These three (taxes), if they got repealed, would be devastating the state,” Sen. Billig said.
Haywood, who says the capital gains tax is a back door to implementing a sales tax, says the money wouldn’t come out of education.
“It’s a shameful government greedy lie. By Constitutional statute, by the laws in Washington state, they must fund education, they have to fund education,” he said.
“I wish we didn’t have any taxes and that we could just have great services and a prosperous community and no taxes but that’s not reality,” Sen. Billig said. “This tax is a particularly good one because its paid by so few people only when they’re profiting to a very large extent.”
The initiative will ultimately be decided by Washington’s voters on Nov. 5.
