REDMOND, WA – Let’s Go Washington (LGW) today condemned the handling of its legal challenge to the Attorney General’s Public Investment Impact Disclosure (PIID) for I-645 after LGW’s attorneys were denied the opportunity to present the arguments they had prepared for the scheduled hearing.
Last month, LGW formally challenged the Attorney General’s PIID for I-645, arguing that the government-written statement gives voters a misleading description of the initiative’s fiscal impact.
The Attorney General’s disclosure states: “This measure would decrease funding for public K-12 education, higher education (including universities and community colleges), and human services (primarily healthcare).” LGW’s challenge argued that the statement is misleading for multiple reasons, including that the income tax has not yet generated a single dollar of revenue and that repealing the tax would actually save the state money in implementation. LGW also challenged whether the disclosure accurately identifies the top three categories of General Fund-supported state services, as required by the PIID statute.
LGW expected to make that case in court today, instead, according to LGW’s legal counsel, Judge Chris Lanese took up issues surrounding LGW’s challenge during a separate case brought by Arthur West. West had filed his own challenge to the I-645 disclosure, questioning the constitutionality of adding government-written language to a citizen initiative after voters signed the petitions necessary to place it on the ballot.
During that proceeding, Judge Lanese claimed that because West was arguing a case generally about PIIDs, he was required to make a ruling on I-645’s PIID at that moment. West, who is not an attorney for LGW, is not affiliated with LGW and did not bring LGW’s challenge, offered his own personal arguments about the language of I-645’s PIID. Ultimately LGW’s counsel was not permitted to argue the case because Judge Lanese threw out the PIID hearing, thus cancelling the scheduled hearing in which LGW’s arguments would be made.
LGW’s counsel characterized the procedure as unprecedented and objected to having an unrelated, non-lawyer litigant effectively address arguments LGW’s own attorneys had prepared to make.
Rather than subsequently allowing LGW’s scheduled arguments to proceed, the court concluded the matter without granting LGW’s requested rewrite.
“This was a disgraceful way to handle a case involving the information millions of Washington voters will see on their ballots,” said Brian Heywood, LGW founder. “We came prepared to make our case. We had attorneys ready to argue specifically why the Attorney General’s statement is misleading and fails the neutrality voters are entitled to expect. Instead, a civilian who does not represent us was invited to argue issues from our challenge, and then the court shut the door without giving our legal team the opportunity to argue the case for the people.
That series of events should disturb people regardless of how they feel about this initiative. At some point, this stops looking like coincidences and starts looking like a system protecting itself from the voters.
The entire state apparatus is doing everything in it’s power to keep voters from having a voice and a clear understanding of what the income tax repeal does:
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The legislature avoided passing the income tax as a constitutional amendment, which would have invoked a vote of the people.
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Jamie Pedersen and Bob Ferguson were advised, by the AGO, to implement an emergency clause on the income tax so that it couldn’t be revoked by referendum, even though funding won’t come through until 2029.
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The Attorney General was allowed to write a partisan and biased summary of the income tax that reads more like a campaign mailer than an unbiased statement.
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Judge Lanese allowed an unrelated, non-lawyer, third party to have de facto legal standing to argue the PIID and deny us the chance to be heard in court.
Throughout all of this, we were told to be quiet and accept whatever the system gives us. We will not quietly accept their lies and misinformation when they have made their true intentions with this tax plain.”
Regardless of the Attorney General’s ballot language or today’s court decision, LGW and its supporters will continue making the case directly to Washington voters that I-645 repeals the state’s newly enacted 9.9% income tax and prevents state and local governments from imposing taxes on individual income.
“They may have denied us our day in court, but they cannot deny Washingtonians their vote,” Heywood added. “We will make sure voters know exactly what I-645 does, exactly what this tax represents, and exactly why Olympia is fighting so hard to keep it.”
Let’s Go Washington’s legal counsel is available to speak with members of the media on background regarding today’s proceedings and the PIID challenge.