Release: Voters Win! Initiative Backers Lose Attempt to Hide Fiscal Impacts
Seattle – A Thurston County Superior Court Judge denied, from the bench, a lawsuit filed by State Republican Party Chair Jim Walsh and backers of ballot initiatives I-2109, I-2117 and I-2124 to hide “Public Investment Impact Disclosures” from voters. At a press conference, advocates for good governance, voter information and transparency criticized ballot initiative backers' effort to interfere with the state’s legal obligation to provide information about the public impact of initiatives before voters.
Aaron Ostrom, FUSE Washington Executive Director, commented: “Their lawsuit has one inexcusable purpose: to hide the truth about the impacts of these initiatives from voters. They know they will lose if voters understand what these destructive, deceptive initiatives actually do. Polls show that voters turn against Initiatives 2109, 2117, and 2124 when they learn the measures will slash billions of dollars of funding for important and popular public programs. Their lawsuit is a deceptive scam to save misleading initiatives that would cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy while shifting the bill onto low and middle income families. It’s desperate and frivolous, and we fully expect it to be dismissed by the courts.”
In an April 2024 poll, the three initiatives fell far below the 50% needed to pass, especially when the 10 words of the public investment impact statement was included. For example, on I-2109 just 31% of voters said they would vote yes for a measure that “would decrease funding for education, early learning and childcare, and school construction.”
Misha Werschkul, Executive Director of the Washington State Budget and Policy Center Director, commented: “The Washington Constitution provides voters with the right to participate in the lawmaking process through the initiative and referendum processes. Voters have a right to know these initiatives cost too much and will have massive impacts on our state’s ability to provide critical services to all Washingtonians.”
Dr. Stephan Blanford, Executive Director of the Children’s Alliance, commented: “Voters have the right to know the fiscal impacts of these three initiatives, plan and simple. By giving mega-millionaires and billionaires a tax break while cutting funding for education and early learning, I-2109 will put more tax pressure on the rest of us and push our education system further into the red. By jeopardizing $8.1 billion in long-term care funding, I-2124 will put more tax pressure on Millennials and Gen Z to pay for a tidal wave of state Medicaid costs for aging Washingtonians, and increase the cost of care for millions of middle income families. I-2117 would allow more pollution across Washington, devastate funding air, water, and land protection, and cut funding to prevent wildfires and investments in transportation.”
Dr. Tim O’Neal, Senior Research Analyst at the Washington Community Alliance, commented: “ We know that clear, honest communication is critical to increasing voter trust and participation in our democracy. However, when voters do not have all the facts, or when the intentions and outcomes of ballot initiatives are unclear, they are less likely to vote and have their voice heard. The Public Investment Impact Disclosure law is important to building the transparency we need to increase voter trust and participation in our constitutional democracy.”
Background: In 2022 legislators passed a law, HB 1876, requiring that a one sentence “neutral, non prejudicial disclosure of the public investments affected” by any voter initiative be added to the ballot language for that measure. This is the first year that these important “Public Investment Impact Disclosures” (PIIDs) will appear on the ballot.
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