‘He has struck out’: Ferguson says voters will reject Heywood’s millionaires’ tax repeal as advocates warn of billions in education cuts

Washington Governor Bob Ferguson is ramping up efforts to stop the repeal of the state’s millionaires’ tax.

At a press conference Tuesday, Ferguson said he is confident voters will reject Initiative 645, the effort by Let’s Go Washington founder Brian Heywood to repeal the millionaires’ tax, as advocates warned the repeal would lead to billions of dollars in cuts to education.

“Hedge manager Brian Heywood is, of course, behind this initiative,” Ferguson said. “It is not his first rodeo. Three prior attempts he has made to roll back progress in Washington state. Capital gains tax. He put that on the ballot. Sixty-four percent of Washingtonians rejected his attempt to roll that back. The Climate Commitment Act. Once again, over 60% of Washingtonians rejected his attempt to roll that back. Washington Cares. Fifty-five percent of Washingtonians rejected that attempt to roll back progress.”

“In other words, he’s 0-for-3,” he continued. “He has struck out. He’s back at the plate again, which is absolutely his right. But it is clear that while Brian Heywood has a vision for this state, it just happens to be a vision that the people of Washington repeatedly reject overwhelmingly.”

Meanwhile, Let’s Go Washington gathered 511,000 signatures, vastly surpassing the 308,911 needed by July 2 to get the repeal of the millionaires’ tax on the November ballot.

“The really interesting comparison is when we did the stopping the natural gas ban, the first four weeks we had 225,000, which was a blistering pace,” Heywood told “The John Curley Show” on KIRO Newsradio in June. “For natural gas, we got 56,000 a week in those first four weeks, and here we’re doing 80,000 a week, and so it suggests something much bigger is going on here than I think Olympia planned on. People are more pissed off about this than Olympia was hoping for.”

Advocates warn repealing millionaires’ tax would blow ‘$13 billion hole’ in state budget

Ferguson said at the news conference that repealing the millionaires’ tax would lead to massive cuts in education.

“It’s a choice between investing in our kids’ education and childcare access and affordability, or going backwards with cuts to education and limiting access to childcare,” he said.

Dr. Soleil Boyd, executive director of the Children’s Alliance, said if Initiative 645 is passed, it will blow a “$13 billion hole” in the state’s budget.

“It would eliminate funding for early learning programs that have been put on hold already or faced funding cuts for the last several years,” she said.

Bryan Kirschner, a tech executive in Seattle who would be paying the millionaires’ tax, also urged voters to vote against Initiative 645.

“The bottom-line truth is that I-645 will end up raising taxes on small businesses and working families, and stripping away billions in funding for education, healthcare, housing, and other essential services that Washington families rely on to thrive,” he said.

Stephen Davis, the CEO of Food Lifeline, said the millionaires’ tax will support programs and initiatives that directly address food insecurity, such as providing universal school meals.

“We believe Initiative 645 would jeopardize the critical investments that help address these challenges and would make it harder for too many of our neighbors to put food on the table,” he said.

Critics argue millionaires’ tax will lead to statewide income tax

Critics worry the millionaires’ tax will pave the way for a statewide income tax, which Washington voters have rejected 10 times since 1932.

Nearly 1,000 pages of public records obtained by The Center Square showed Washington’s attorney general and Democratic lawmakers worked together to design the millionaires’ tax as a test case to overturn a 1933 Supreme Court ban on income taxes.

However, Ferguson said he would veto any legislation that would try to lower the $1 million threshold.

“What’s before us in November — the contrast could not be clearer,” Ferguson said.

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