Washington state Republican Party Chairman and state Rep. Jim Walsh, R-Aberdeen, will host a town hall recapping the 2024 legislative session on Tuesday in Centralia.
In a news release, Walsh said the town halls have centered around the six initiatives filed to the Legislature that hung over lawmakers' heads for much of the session.
“The fact that the six common-sense citizen initiatives to the Legislature qualified with broad support across all demographics had a much bigger intimidation effect on the speaker and the state majority leader than anybody expected,” Walsh said in a statement.
During the session, the Legislature passed a trio of initiatives that will loosen vehicle pursuit restrictions, establish a parental “bill of rights” and prevent the state from implementing an income tax in the future. The three initiatives — I-2113, I-2111 and I-2081 — were delivered to the Secretary of State and take effect 90 days after the session ends. Unlike a typical piece of legislation, initiatives are exempt from potential veto by the governor.
“They (Legislative Democrats) didn’t know what to do,” Walsh said. “And they did not expect them to get enough signatures to qualify. They were caught flat-footed. And you could see they were not on their game.”
The three measures that did not get public hearings or floor consideration are Initiative 2109 to repeal the capital gains tax, Initiative 2117 to repeal the Climate Commitment Act and Initiative 2124 to allow more people to opt out of the state’s long-term care program.
Those will be decided by voters during the general election in November.
“When common-sense Republican policies lead the way, things get better for everyone,” Walsh said. “Working together, we will continue to fix what’s broken in Washington."
The event in Centralia will take place from 7 to 8 p.m. at the Gibson House Event Center, located at 221 N. Tower Ave.
For those in Southwest Washington unable to attend, Walsh will host a town hall Friday from 7 to 8 p.m. in Battle Ground at the Manor Grange, located at 17901 NE 72nd Ave.
