(The Center Square) – Washington voters will soon receive ballots in the mail for the Nov. 4 general election.
The only statewide ballot measure is Senate Joint Resolution 8201, which proposes a constitutional amendment to allow the state to invest the Long-Term Services and Supports Trust Fund, or WA Cares Fund, in stocks and other equities. Voters can either approve or reject the legislatively referred constitutional amendment.
Currently, Washington’s constitution limits the WA Cares Fund to safer, but lower-return, fixed-income investments, such as government bonds and certificates of deposit.
The WA Cares Fund is a mandatory state program that provides a lifetime benefit of up to $36,500 (inflation-adjusted) for long-term care services, funded by a 0.58% payroll tax on working Washingtonians, which took effect on July 1, 2023.
Proponents justify the program as a public long-term care insurance program that ensures affordable coverage for Washingtonians, helps families avoid financial hardship, and reduces the burden on the state’s Medicaid system.
Critics of the program argue that the benefits will not be sufficient.
“The question that will be before voters in November is purely financial,” Elizabeth New, director of the Center for Health Care at the free-market Washington Policy Center think tank, told The Center Square on Tuesday. “It has nothing to do with whether you like or want the fund that has been imposed on workers. It simply asks, ‘Should the [Washington] State Investment Board be allowed to invest WA Cares funds in diversified portfolios that see better growth than ways money is allowed to be invested currently?’”
The state constitution currently bars most public money from being invested in the stock of private companies.
New said that despite her concerns with WA Cares in general, she favors SJR 8210, with the hope that passage of the measure will shore up the program’s bottom line, so that taxpayers don’t see even more money taken from their paychecks in the future.
“I think that this allows the investment board to do its job, that it does for other funds and makes 8%-ish a year, and right now we’re on track to make just 4% a year in the way we’re currently allowed to invest WA CARE’s dollars, and you know the fund has already had sustainability concerns, and I have concerns that the tax is only going to rise,” she said.
New notes indicate that Washington’s Paid Family and Medical Leave Act tax has doubled due to its popularity, and the hopes that WA CARE’s deductions from paychecks will not require additional contributions.
“It doubled [PFMLA] from 0.40% to 0.92% in the first five years. It could go up, and I don’t want to see that you know you’re already getting a lousy return on investment if you’re locked up in the WA CARE’s fund, and I want people to have more of their money to go toward the needs that they will have, and they do have,” New reasoned.
Support for SJR 8201 was overwhelming, but not unanimous, during the 2025 legislative session.
