This week, Jaime Herrera Beutler joined KOMO News and KVI 570’s Ari Hoffman to break down what Initiative 645 actually does, and why Washington’s new income tax isn’t the narrow wealthy tax supporters claim it is. She walked through how the law strips away long-standing retirement protections for teachers and firefighters, how repealing it doesn’t touch a single dollar of current funding for social programs, and why Olympia’s spending, not a lack of revenue, is the real problem. Voters, not politicians, deserve the final say on whether they want a tax that was written to expand to everyone in the state.
KOMO News: Key Quotes and Excerpts
Setting the Record Straight on Olympia’s Tax and Spend Tactics
“[Olympia] is saying if we repeal this in the next five weeks, that it will cut money that they have,” said Jaime Herrera Beutler, former congresswoman and spokesperson for the ‘yes’ campaign. “That’s not true. The tax isn’t set to actually even be collected for another two years.”
The new law does not specifically allocate the amount of money that would go towards K-12 education or healthcare.
“If we want to get at a more fair or just tax system, I am more than willing to have that debate,” Herrera Beutler said. “And let’s do it in the light of day with all the public watching. Let’s not fake it and then tax [everyone else] when they’re not looking.”
On Expanding the Tax to Every Washingtonian
“Voters deserve the truth. This is an income tax, and it has been designed to expand to every single Washingtonian,” Herrera Beutler said. “Whether you’re a truck driver or a hairdresser or a plumber. It was designed to be expanded to your income.”
The law does not have any protections from expansion written in. State leaders have said that it is not their intention to ever expand the tax.
“Don’t trust what they say. Trust what they’ve done,” Herrera Beutler said.
A Retirement Tax on Teachers, Firefighters, and Everyone with a Public Pension
The new state law removes exemptions that state pensions had for decades.
“...not exempt any pension or other benefit received under this chapter...” the law reads.
“Why would you do that? No teacher or firefighter makes a million dollars. That’s the point,” Herrera Beutler said. “They’ve set the whole chess game up with the intention of expanding it to tax the income of every Washingtonian.”
CLICK HERE to watch the full KOMO News story.
KVI 570 Interview: Key Quotes and Excerpts
Why She’s Joined the Fight to Repeal the Income Tax
“I’m not a millionaire, I wish I was, don’t we all?, but I believe voters in Washington deserve the truth about the income tax. It was designed to expand to every Washingtonian,” said Jaime Herrera Beutler, former congresswoman and spokesperson for the ‘yes’ campaign.
“We use the term ‘Trojan Horse.’ I think it’s a bait and switch. They’re selling this as taxing one class of people when they have literally put in place all the chess pieces to expand it to all of us,” Herrera Beutler said.
Olympia Has a Spending Problem, Not a Revenue Problem
“Dollars are not scarce, results are scarce. In the past decade, the state is spending, in real, population and inflation-adjusted dollars, 40% more per person. And in that process we have gotten no meaningful [improvement]. In fact, we’ve gotten the largest tax increase in state history, and where are we?”
Despite that spending, Washington has dropped from 20th to 31st in the nation in education scores, math and reading scores are down, and homelessness has grown from 20,000 to 30,000 people despite a six-fold increase in spending. The state spends roughly $21,000 per child on childcare, yet ranks 33rd in access.
“In high-tax states like Massachusetts, for example, who was #1 in education, they could make the case more straight-faced to voters, but they can’t, because the results aren’t there,”
Public Union Bosses Undermine Their Own Members by Supporting This Tax
Washington’s public-sector union bosses have poured $7.8 million into defending the state’s new income tax. Yet some of the people most likely to lose out are the very members these unions represent: the teachers, firefighters, and state employees whose pensions the law quietly stripped of protection. This isn’t a tax on the wealthy. It’s a retirement tax.
“It’s astounding to me that the public employee unions are willing to put all their money behind putting this tax in place, when in that same bill, they allow their members’ retiree checks to be exposed.”
“Every single other state that has income tax protects social security. But not Washington. We’ll be the first to allow the state to dip in, along with Uncle Sam, to retirement checks,” Herrera Beutler said.
The Threshold was Designed to be Lowered
“They put the taxes in place first. We’re already paying some of those taxes, right? … By the time you have gotten to your jobsite, between the state and local tax districts, you’ve already been taxed on your lights, your heat, your shower, your morning caffeine, your car, and your commute.”
“For those who say, ‘They’re not going to lower the threshold, it’s only for the rich,’ I mean, politicians [and] a pot of money, how long do you think it’s going to take for them to start lowering that threshold once the spending has started? This doesn’t pass a straight-face test,” Herrera Beutler said.
CLICK HERE to watch the full KVI interview.