Katrina Peters: Stand up for the middle class by voting no on I-2109

By Katrina Peters

Did you know that the ultrarich get tax-free money all the time? They have lawyers at their disposal and know all the tax loopholes. One such tax loophole that was recently closed allowed Washington’s wealthiest not to pay any taxes on the billions of dollars they get every year from trading stocks and bonds.

Washington state legislators put a stop to this in 2021 by approving a capital gains excise tax on extraordinary profits from the sale of stocks. To ensure that it would not apply to ordinary people like you and me, they exempted the first $250,000 in profit. That means under the new tax, Washington’s megamillionaires and billionaires still get $250,000 tax free. What would you do with $250,000 tax free? I can’t even imagine what I would do with that kind of money, let alone tax-free.

But $250,000 isn’t enough for some of these folks. They want all of their profits to be tax free. That’s why they put Initiative 2109 on the ballot. If it passes, they won’t have to pay a dime on any of the money they make selling stocks and bonds. Meanwhile, those of us who actually work for a living are already paying a higher share of our incomes and taxes than the super rich.

Statewide, 99.8% of us do not pay the capital gains excise tax, because it is so targeted toward the wealthy. In Spokane County, even fewer people pay it. Just 105 people in our entire county with a population of 550,000 pay the tax. This is because 84% of the money from the tax comes from wealthy individuals in King County. The tax does not apply to home sales, retirement accounts, farms or small businesses. We are also not the only state that has a capital gains tax. In fact, 41 other states have such a tax, with ours being among the lowest rates.

I am thrilled to have this tax because the money goes to support new investments in child care and early learning, providing much-needed relief to working parents with young children. According to the Department of Revenue, in just two years, the tax has brought in roughly $1.2 billion. If Initiative 2109 passes in November, Washington would lose an estimated $2.2 billion over five years, according to the Office of Financial Management. This would be a dramatic cut to our state’s child care and education programs, just to give a few ultra-rich people a tax cut.

It would also be devastating to our economy. A new study from Child Care Aware of Washington shows that Washington businesses lose nearly $7 billion annually from child care-related employee turnover and missed work. Initiative 2109 would make this problem even worse by cutting funding from the Working Connections Child Care program, which provides high quality child care that allow parents to participate in the workforce. A report from the Washington State Budget and Policy Center also shows that the state would lose 10,000 jobs.

Washington has the second-most, upside-down tax code in the nation, where middle class families like yours and mine pay a three times higher percentage of their income in taxes than the ultrarich. I know that the saying is the rich keep getting richer while the poor keep getting poorer, but you can do something about it this November. I urge you to vote no on I-2109, an initiative that hedge fund millionaire Brian Heywood has put significant resources behind to repeal our capital gains tax. He doesn’t want to pay the measly 7% tax to help fund child care for struggling families. We wouldn’t have a labor shortage, as big of a homeless population, or sky-high crime rates, among a host of other issues, if families were taken care of.

Let’s get children taken care of and moms back to work. And let’s make the rich pay what they owe and stand up for the middle class.

Join me in voting no on Initiative 2109 in November.

Katrina Peters is a lifelong Spokane resident, a mom to three little ones and an organizer for the No on 2109 campaign.