With less than two weeks left in the legislative session, rally attendees again called for lawmakers to act on the six initiatives filed to the Washington state Legislature on Friday.
The rally on the steps of the Capitol — the second organizers have held during the current session — drew both major Republican gubernatorial candidates, Republican Senatorial Candidate Raul Garcia, legislators, and Brian Heywood, a Republican donor who spent more than $6 million to gather signatures.
“This many people out, and 800,000 that signed, is a statement to the elitist snobs that we’re tired of it,” Heywood said.
The six initiatives, each of which was certified by the secretary of state, drew a combined 2.6 million signatures from 800,000 registered voters. This week, legislators will hold joint hearings on three proposals — the prohibition of a state income tax, a parental bill of rights and reforming police pursuit requirements, though Heywood argued lawmakers are not fulfilling their constitutional duty.
“When I was in school, and probably when most of you were in school, if you only turned in three of your six assignments, that’s an F,” Heywood said during the rally. “We expect them to listen to all six of these. There’s 800,000 people who put their name and their signature and their birth date.”
Three other initiatives — a repeal of the Climate Commitment Act, a repeal of the capital gains tax and allowing residents to opt out of the state’s new long term care program — will go straight to the November ballot.
Ahead of the November election, the rally provided candidates an opportunity to speak out on initiatives that might very well appear on the same ballot.
“I fell in love with a country before stepping foot in it, because I believed I could get to a country where the people’s voice would count,” Garcia said, drawing on childhood memories of living in Cuba. “This is the clearest example of the voice of the people of the United States to improve our state, and our Country.”
Both Semi Bird and Dave Reichert, the two major Republican candidates for governor, thanked the nearly 400 attendees for their support of the initiative process.
“Thank you all for being here today,” Reichert said, saying police pursuits and children are “near and dear” to his heart.
“We are going to bring back the constitution to Washington State and preserve our rights for all citizens, all citizens,” Bird said.
Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, and chair of the state Republican party, said “we’re going to have the best time reminding everyone this year that the people are in charge.”
During his remarks on capitol steps, Walsh pushed back on the estimated impact of repealing the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) or the capital gains tax.
“You’re going to hear, over the next few months, that repealing this disastrous, deceitful tax, is going to destroy everything. It won’t allow us to keep roads, it will hurt the bridges,” Walsh said, referring to a proposal to repeal portions of the CCA. “Lie, lie, lie. We can repeal this disastrous tax, and we will not impact critical infrastructure.”
The initiative to repeal the state’s capital gains tax would cut $5.66 billion earmarked for education, according to a fiscal note for the proposal prepared by the Office of Fiscal Management.
“Capital gains is an income tax, and we don’t do that here,” Walsh said.
The Finance and Ways and Means Joint Committee will hold a hearing on the initiative to ban an income tax in Washington on Tuesday from 12:30 to 1:30 p.m. in the O’Brien Building. The Early Learning & K-12 Education Committee will hold a hearing on parental rights on Wednesday from 8 to 9 a.m. in the O’Brien Building.
The Law & Justice and Community Safety, Justice and Reentry Joint Committees will hold a hearing on police pursuit policy on Wednesday from 9 to 10 a.m. in the Cherberg Building.
“Sometimes, Olympia loses touch,” radio host John Carlson said at the rally. “And when it loses touch, the people have the final word.”
