Decline to Sign
Here’s the take-home: When you’re out and about this holiday season in Washington State from now until January 1st—and a signature gather approaches you—Decline to Sign. The Tim Eyman paid signature gatherers are out there once again, funded by wealthy political activists, and pushing no less than six deceptive initiatives. Not one of them is worthy of your signature. Below is a circular put out by FUSE Washington, a group I trust and respect with the details. Pass this on and tell your friends.
Keep to the high ground,
Jerry
Dear Friend,
This is sinister.
Washington’s wealthiest MAGA donors have teamed up with the state Republican Party and Tim Eyman to launch an insidious slate of regressive initiatives.
Their initiatives would cut taxes for the ultra wealthy and let our biggest polluters off the hook. They would cut nearly $900 million from public schools and child care, while increasing Big Oil profits and rolling back our investments in clean energy. They would also repeal Washington’s capital gains tax, defund long term care for seniors, and more.
There’s 3 simple things you can do to help stop these initiatives now:
Don’t sign any initiative in the next three months. The bad ones are the only initiatives out there right now
Make sure your friends and family members don’t sign them
Report any signature gatherers you see for these initiatives to this hotline run by our partners: (425) 553-2157
Don’t get fooled. The petitioners are paid by the signature, and will often lie shamelessly about what the initiatives do to get you to sign.
These “Backwards Washington” initiatives are an extreme Republican agenda aimed directly at our kids and their schools, working families trying to afford childcare, seniors who benefit from long-term care, and clean energy solutions that tackle the growing climate crisis.
Here’s the initiatives and what they do:
I-2109: Repeals Washington’s capital gains tax on top 0.2%, defunding early learning and education
I-2117: Ends Washington’s program to fund clean energy and fight climate change by making polluters pay and repeals the Climate Commitment Act
I-2124: Repeals long-term care coverage for working Washingtonians
I-2113: Repeals best practice safety standards for dangerous high speed chases
I-2081: A confusing mishmash of existing law designed to entice parents into signing the other initiatives while doing nothing for kids and schools
I-2111: Ensures that Washington’s wealthiest 1% won’t contribute to our communities by banning progressive income taxes at the city, county, and state levels
Right-wing multi-millionaire Brian Heywood is bankrolling these initiatives in a cynical effort to dodge the taxes he owes to our communities. Heywood is joined in this effort by his co-sponsors: Washington’s MAGA Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh, and serial initiative con artist Tim Eyman. These are initiatives to the Legislature, and signatures are due at the end of the year.1
We’re joining our partners across the progressive community to fight back against these harmful initiatives. The first step is to decline to sign any of them and encourage your friends to do the same! And please call the hotline if you see signature gatherers – (425) 553-2157.
They are counting on holiday shoppers to sign their petitions. Let’s make sure they don’t succeed!
Thanks for all that you do,
Aaron and the entire team at Fuse
Dr. Jerry LeClaire is a retired Spokane ophthalmologist who now authors an insightful political blog Indivisible--The Hign Ground. Now in its seventh year, his High Ground columns focus on political issues that are relevant in Spokane and throughout Eastern Washington.