Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax today launched a new statewide ad highlighting concerns that hard-working Washingtonians - in this case, firefighters - have with the new income tax.
Vote Yes recently spoke with Brinnon, Washington Fire Chief Tim Manly whose retirement benefits are now at risk thanks to Olympia’s new income tax. Washington experienced one of the worst fire seasons on record this Summer, with major wildfires breaking out across the state. Yet with one sentence buried in Olympia’s income tax, lawmakers erased nearly 80 years of protections for public employee pensions for the firefighters who keep us safe.
Firefighters, teachers, police officers, and every public servant lost that protection at every income level without notice, without debate, and without anyone telling them. They are not the millionaires this tax was sold as targeting, yet their retirement benefits are now inside the tax base. If this tax were truly only intended only for the wealthiest residents, there was no reason to touch these pension protections at all.
Voting Yes on I-645 will restore the pension protections Olympia erased.
