(The Center Square) – Emails obtained by The Center Square between the Washington Attorney General and Democratic leaders show Nick Brown’s staff was playing politics instead of protecting the Constitution and residents in proposing the millionaire’s tax, a key critic of the tax said Tuesday.
The Center Square published an exclusive story Monday revealing that members of the Washington State Attorney General’s Office and Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, conspired to craft the newly enacted millionaire’s tax so it would “force” the State Supreme Court to take up the question of whether income is property, which the high court has affirmed for almost a century.
“I think the AGs office seems to be exercising discretion in a very political way, instead of doing what they should be doing, which is to defend the law of the state of Washington and defend the Constitution,” Citizen Action Defense Fund Executive Director Jackson Maynard told The Center Square. “I thought it was also a little weird, frankly, that the Attorney General is advising the legislature on how to get around public scrutiny and the opportunity for the public to weigh in by saying, ‘Oh, by the way, you may want to include this cause, otherwise the people might have a chance to challenge this with a referendum.’”
CADF has filed a lawsuit to get the millionaire’s tax overturned, with former Attorney General Rob McKenna and former State Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge joining the legal team.
The Center Square investigation exposed the thinking behind the legislation which could help opponents in court, Maynard said.
“We get a peek at some of the arguments that they’re going to raise and some of the motivation,” he said. “I do think it will be ultimately helpful in our litigation on the income tax suit to have this kind of insight into the intent behind the legislature in drafting some of these clauses.”
But he conceded that he was not surprised by the emails exchanges.
“I think it confirms what was the worst kept secret in Olympia, which is that this entire piece of legislation was specifically designed to force a reversal of 100 years of case law,” Maynard said. “I think it’s a little bit of a situation where, you know, like the line from Casablanca: we now know that there’s gambling going on in the casino. It’s a peek behind the curtain at that process.”
According to the emails, Pedersen proposed the millionaire’s tax as a way to trigger a lawsuit that would arrive the State Supreme Court due to its violation of 100 years of case law declaring income property, which means it’s subject to a constitutional requirement that all property taxes be uniform in nature according to their class.
AGO legal memos sent to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s Office outlined the legal case for why the century’s worth of case law was incorrect and why income should not be treated as property under the state constitution’s definition, which is “all things tangible and intangible, subject to ownership.”
The emails also revealed that Pedersen’s initial draft of the bill did not include an emergency clause and was suggested by Solicitor General Noah Purcell, a form of legal counsel which Maynard questioned, as the emergency clause prevents voters from weighing in via a referendum.
Brown’s staff and Pedersen have not responded to requests for comment since Monday’s story posted.
