(The Center Square) – Let’s Go Washington is suing Secretary of State Steve Hobbs over his decision to block a public vote on the new state income tax law.
The political action committee claims Hobbs misquoted the Constitution in denying their request to allow voters to have a say in the matter.
The argument centers around an emergency clause in the bill’s language that blocks any potential referendum to repeal the tax, which was signed into law this week by Gov. Bob Ferguson.
Let’s Go Washington Founder Brian Heywood told The Center Square Friday that the rejection letter from Hobbs refusing to process their referendum is the basis for their new challenge.
“The rejection letter was sort of very informative because it took the wording that’s in the Constitution, and it added words to it that are not in the Constitution,” Heywood said. “So, what it says in the actual Constitution, [is that] laws must be necessary for the immediate preservation of public peace, health or safety, support of the state government. Right? The Secretary of State’s letter rewrites it as necessary, and then it’s dot, dot, dot or for the support of the state government. So, this is basically giving the legislature a get out of jail free card to say, sorry voters, this is something that’s so important you don’t get to have a say.
“Because they rejected this, we will now pursue this in a legal case, and this is urgent. To do a referendum, you have to collect the signatures by June 10th,” he added. “And so we need to sort of skip over the slow-moving process that normally happens. So, we’ll make an appeal directly to ask the Supreme Court to hear this because time is a factor now.”
As reported by The Center Square, Hobbs’ office argues that because the Legislature declared the act necessary for the support of state government, they are required by the state constitution to treat it as exempt from referendum. That was the justification for refusing to process the request from LGW.
Heywood said it’s critical to challenge Hobbs on this issue as it impacts far more than just a potential repeal of the recently signed income tax.
“Pretty much everything that the legislature does is for the support of the state government,” he said. “And so, by Hobbs definition it completely eliminates any check on the government.”
In addition to the suit against Hobbs over the SOS denial of the referendum, LGW is working on initiative challenges to the income tax.
“The referendum has a very tight time frame,” Heywood said. “It’s June tenth when you have to gather [signatures] but you only need 200,000 signatures. It’s easier from that front. But more importantly, a referendum is up or down. Do you support this law? So, it’s an easier thing for voters to vote on. And the legislature knows that. They know that on a referendum, it’s easier to get a “no” than it is to get a “yes” on a referendum.”
He further explained that with an initiative, more signatures are required, but the Attorney General gets to weigh in, so they are fighting for the referendum opportunity.
“With a referendum it doesn’t give the attorney general the opportunity to propagandize on the ballot,” he said. “So, there’s a lot of reasons that a referendum is important and valuable, and asking the Supreme Court to uphold this constitutional safeguard is not a fool’s errand.”
In addition to LGW’s suit challenging Hobbs dismissal of the referendum, Citizen Action Defense Fund and former Attorney General Rob McKenna are planning to file a legal challenge in the coming days.
“We will be challenging this unconstitutional income tax that the governor just signed into law,” said Citizen Action Defense Fund Executive Director Jackson Maynard just after Monday’s bill signing. “As Rob [McKenna] outlined in his memo that was given to the legislature, that was unfortunately ignored by the legislature and the governor, the state Constitution has a uniformity requirement for any taxes on property, as well as a cap on one percent. This clearly violates that. And so those will be the argument among others that we make in the lawsuit when we file it within the next few days.”
Hobbs office issued a statement Friday afternoon in response to The Center Square’s request for comment, saying their actions are based on court rulings.
“Our response to the referendum filed by Let’s Go Washington was based on decades of the Washington State Supreme Court’s interpretation of the Washington State Constitution,” the statement said. “The court has consistently held that the ‘immediate preservation of the public peace, health, and safety’ clause and the ‘support of state government and its existing public institutions’ clause are independent. This interpretation was reaffirmed as recently as last November.”
