NO on I‑2109 launches new website, calls on Washingtonians to defend education funding this fall

The coali­tion work­ing to defend the Edu­ca­tion Lega­cy Trust today held a series of four events around the state to pro­mote its new web­site and urge Wash­ing­to­ni­ans to come togeth­er this autumn in oppo­si­tion to Ini­tia­tive 2109, Bri­an Hey­wood and Jim Wal­sh’s incred­i­bly destruc­tive scheme to repeal the state’s cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy.

In Spokane, Yaki­ma, Van­cou­ver, and Burien, ear­ly learn­ing and pub­lic edu­ca­tion advo­cates were joined by elect­ed offi­cials and child­care providers to speak to the grave dam­age I‑2109 would inflict on essen­tial pub­lic ser­vices if it were enacted.

“Ini­tia­tive 2109 will take away bil­lions of dol­lars in child­care fund­ing. The fam­i­lies who enroll their chil­dren in our cen­ter rely on state fund­ing. If Ini­tia­tive 2109 pass­es, as many as half of the fam­i­lies we work with may no longer be able to afford child­care,” said Diana Llanes, the own­er and oper­a­tor of Once Upon a Time Bilin­gual Child­care Cen­ter in Burien. 

Once Upon a Time host­ed the Burien launch event, which I attend­ed along with rep­re­sen­ta­tives from many oth­er media orga­ni­za­tions, includ­ing KUOW, KOMO, and KIRO.

Watch­ing kids play in the cen­ter’s play­ground after the speak­ing pro­gram was an excel­lent reminder of what’s at stake this autumn. These lit­tle ones are our future! 

Only the rich­est Wash­ing­to­ni­ans pay our state’s cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy, which has helped make our upside down tax code more equi­table, and the fund­ing is ben­e­fit­ing fam­i­lies all across Wash­ing­ton. The tax, which was enact­ed in 2021 and has already sur­vived a well-fund­ed legal chal­lenge, is levied only on large fortunes. 

All real estate is exempt, along with retire­ment accounts and pro­ceeds from sales of farm­land and tim­ber­lands. Even though most Wash­ing­to­ni­ans don’t pay it, the tax still rais­es hun­dreds of mil­lions of dol­lars a year for education. 

Nohe­mi Bautista, who owns CasaLu­na Day­care Cen­ter in Yaki­ma, agrees with Llanes that pas­sage of I‑2109 would be a huge blow to fam­i­lies with young children. 

“Ini­tia­tive 2109 would cut bil­lions of dol­lars in child­care assis­tance. Every one of the par­ents whose kids I look after and edu­cate relies on this assis­tance. These par­ents are health­care work­ers, farm­work­ers, and ware­house work­ers. They do jobs that are essen­tial for our com­mu­ni­ty to thrive. If Ini­tia­tive 2109 pass­es, these par­ents may not be unable to afford child­care and not be able to do these crit­i­cal jobs. Kids will miss oppor­tu­ni­ties, par­ents will lose income, and our com­mu­ni­ty will suf­fer,” said Bautista. 

Par­ents are wor­ried, too. 

“The father of my old­est two chil­dren died in August of 2021 due to com­pli­ca­tions relat­ed to COVID-19. In order for me to be able to work, my chil­dren need child­care. For many Wash­ing­ton fam­i­lies, qual­i­ty child­care feels like a lux­u­ry they can­not afford. This isn’t just a bur­den on par­ents, it hin­ders our state’s poten­tial. By mak­ing child­care more afford­able, we empow­er par­ents to join the work­force, boost­ing our econ­o­my,” not­ed Aman­da Ham­mond, a Save The Chil­dren Action Net­work par­ent from Vancouver.

“Two of my chil­dren attend­ed preschool through the Ear­ly Child­hood Edu­ca­tion and Assis­tance Pro­gram. Not only did ECEAP help get my kids ready for kinder­garten, it cre­at­ed a com­mu­ni­ty for our fam­i­ly. Ini­tia­tive 2109 threat­ens to take away bil­lions of dol­lars in fund­ing for ear­ly learn­ing pro­grams that the Fair Start for Kids Act pro­vides,” echoed Daree Blake, a Mom­sRis­ing & Save the Chil­dren Action Net­work par­ent from Spokane.

For almost ten years, NPI’s research has con­sis­tent­ly found that a robust major­i­ty of Wash­ing­ton vot­ers sup­port tax­ing wealth to fund edu­ca­tion. Vot­ers sup­port our cap­i­tal gains tax on the wealthy and would like to see the state go even fur­ther by levy­ing a wealth tax, which the Leg­is­la­ture has yet to do. 

Right wing Repub­li­cans are very upset that Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­is­la­tors have tak­en steps to require the wealthy to invest more appro­pri­ate sums in Wash­ing­ton’s future. This is their third attempt to turn back the clock. They first tried to get the cap­i­tal gains tax thrown out in court, as men­tioned, but their law­suit failed. While the law­suit was ongo­ing, a group of Repub­li­can oper­a­tives tried to drum up inter­est in forc­ing statewide vote on over­turn­ing the tax but had to nix their cam­paign after donors lost interest. 

Then, last year, top Repub­li­can Par­ty donor Bri­an Hey­wood decid­ed to self-fund a repeal effort as part of a larg­er slate of ini­tia­tives intend­ed to undo laws passed by the Leg­is­la­ture in the last few years, includ­ing the Cli­mate Com­mit­ment Act and WA Cares. 

Hey­wood’s mil­lions enabled I‑2109 to qual­i­fy as an ini­tia­tive to the 2024 Leg­is­la­ture in Jan­u­ary. Demo­c­ra­t­ic leg­is­la­tors declined to adopt I‑2109 and instead referred it to the Novem­ber bal­lot. It’s now the respon­si­bil­i­ty of the NO on I‑2109 cam­paign to make the case for the mea­sure’s rejec­tion to the peo­ple of Washington.

NPI is par­tic­i­pat­ing in the cam­paign and the larg­er coali­tion work­ing for vic­to­ry over all of Hey­wood and Wal­sh’s mea­sures, which is known as Defend Washington.

The coali­tion’s polling has found I‑2109 and its sib­lings to be in a very weak posi­tion out of the gate, which is encour­ag­ing. How­ev­er, we can’t sit on our lau­rels and hope for a good out­come. The key to beat­ing bad bal­lot mea­sures is to build active, inclu­sive, high­ly vis­i­ble NO cam­paigns that bring peo­ple togeth­er and tell the sto­ry of the harm that would be inflict­ed by the mea­sure’s pas­sage. That’s what NO on I‑2109 is doing. 

Con­nect­ing the dots between rev­enue and ser­vices is impor­tant: vot­ers need to know, and want to know, what the tax dol­lars they’re being asked to repeal are pay­ing for. 

We suc­ceed­ed spec­tac­u­lar­ly today in telling the sto­ries of the fam­i­lies and the child­care providers who will be hurt if I‑2109 pass­es. We’re off to a good start in our quest to build the most effec­tive cam­paign pos­si­ble against Bri­an Hey­wood’s self-serv­ing effort to give him­self and oth­er rich peo­ple a tax cut at the expense of Wash­ing­ton’s youth.