Part Three in a four-part series on Let’s Go Washington’s Six Initiatives.
Here is the full series: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.
The cost of living in Washington has gotten out of hand. It is crushing families and causing undue financial stress. At FPIW, we stand firmly against any attack on families and the virtue of honest hard work — and this includes defending people from unjust taxation.
Let’s be clear what any tax is: It is the use of force to take people’s money away; if a person refuses, they may endure violence (e.g., prison). That use of force of government should be used only within strict moral boundaries, and our Founding Fathers knew first-hand the proclivity of “a greedy government” to overreach in order to aggrandize its own power and impose its own agenda.
Which brings us to two issues now facing the story of Washington State — the Capital Gains Tax as well as the Income Tax. That’s why Let’s Go Washington focused four of their six initiatives on resolving cost of living issues in our state. We covered the first two of those measures here, and today we’ll look at the second two measures that will reduce the burden of expenses on your family’s everyday life:
- Repeal the Capital Gains Tax (I-2109)
Innovators and family businesses should not be penalized for years of hard work building up their business and paying taxes just to be taxed again when they retire and want to bless their family with the fruits of their labor. It is an outright lie that Capital Gains Taxes only impact the rich, as with the threshold now at $250,000, legislators are already discussing lowering that amount and increasing the tax percentage. This is a slippery slope we know our state government will take advantage of, if given the chance. Let’s Go Washington’s ballot description says this measure would “repeal an excise tax imposed on the sale or exchange of certain long-term capital assets by individuals who have annual capital gains of over $250,000.”
- No State Income Tax (I-2111)
Initiative 2111 is a preventative measure – Washington is one of only seven states with no personal income tax on the books. But that doesn’t mean legislators aren’t trying to find shrewd ways to get around Washington’s constitution, even though time and time again voters have rejected state income tax measures. This is demonstrated clearly through the Capital Gains Tax, which is classified as an “excise tax” rather than income tax. This measure uses the IRS definition of “income” – which is extremely thorough – to enshrine the principle that income cannot be taxed on any level. The initiative description explains that it would “prohibit the state, counties, cities, and other local jurisdictions from imposing or collecting income taxes, defined as having the same meaning as ‘gross income’ in the Internal Revenue Code.”
Both of these initiatives received the requisite signatures to be certified, and now, legislators are left with a decision. They can either adopt the initiatives as proposed by Let’s Go Washington and each will become law, reject the initiatives and each measure will be placed on the ballot in November, or propose a different measure on the same subject to be placed on the ballot alongside the original initiative.
Helping turn in boxes of Initiative signatures to the WA Secretary of State.
Pastor David Sellstrom, Senior Pastor, The Remnant Church in Tumwater.
This victory is a perfect example of what can happen when conservatives stand together as one and allow our voices to be heard – we can push six initiatives that will protect and defend our rights to the forefront and demand that lawmakers take action on the issues that matter most in our daily lives.
If you want to join the fight, click here to apply to be on our team of DEFENDERS. The fight is not over!
Part Three in a four-part series on Let’s Go Washington’s Six Initiatives.
Here is the full series: Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four.
