Washington Public Vote on Tax Increases Initiative (2020)

Washington Public Vote on Tax Increases Initiative
Election date November 3, 2020
Topic Taxes and Direct democracy measures
Status Not on the ballot
Type State statute	Origin Citizens
List of Washington measuresWashington Referendum 90Washington Senate Joint Resolution 8212Washington Advisory Vote 32Washington Advisory Vote 33Washington Advisory Vote 34Washington Advisory Vote 35Submit

The Washington Public Vote on Tax Increases Initiative was not on the ballot in Washington as an Initiative to the Legislature, a type of indirect initiated state statute, on November 3, 2020.

Tim Eyman proposed multiple versions of the initiative, but announced a signature drive for Initiative 1082 on July 6, 2019.

Measure design

Initiative 1082 would have required that tax increases passed by the state legislature expire after one year unless voters approve the increases as referred ballot measures.

The measure was specifically targeted toward the following 11 bills:

• House Bill 1087
• Senate Bill 5998
• Senate Bill 5993
• Senate Bill 6016
• House Bill 2167
• Senate Bill 5997
• Senate Bill 6004
• House Bill 1873
• Senate Bill 5581
• House Bill 2158
• Senate Bill 5313

Text of measure

Ballot title

Initiative 1082 ballot title
“ Initiative Measure No. 1082 concerns state taxes. This measure would require state tax increases to expire after one year unless approved by a majority vote of the people, and terminate tax increases imposed in 2019 or 2020 without such approval. Should this measure be enacted into law? ”

Ballot summary

Initiative 1082 ballot summary

“ This measure would require state tax increases to expire after one year unless approved by a majority of voters at an election. Any tax increase imposed in 2019 or 2020 without such approval would be terminated and expire on the effective date of this act. The measure would prohibit the State from collecting revenue from any tax increase terminated by this measure, and require notice to the code reviser of tax-increase expiration dates. ”

Full text

The full text of the initiative may be found here.

Support

Supporters

• Permanent Offense, Tim Eyman's committee

Arguments

On August 26, 2019, attorney Richard Sanders of Tacoma, Washington, submitted an analysis of I-1082 to Tim Eyman declaring that after having "carefully examin[ed] the initiative's policies and text, previous court rulings, and legal precedents, I find no legal or constitutional infirmities in it. I conclude I-1082 passes constitutional muster."

Background

Eyman circulated an identical initiative, Initiative 1648, an Initiative to the People targeting the 2019 ballot. On July 5, 2019, Eyman announced "We ended up falling short. We were just shy of 200,000 [signatures]. It was less than 30 days, we were starting from scratch, we had no money... we're going to keep on working hard, but Initiative 1648 ended up falling short and what killed us was the calendar— that's all it was."

Path to the ballot

See also: Laws governing the initiative process in Washington

The state process

In Washington, the number of signatures required to qualify an indirectly initiated state statute—called an Initiative to the Legislature in Washington—for the ballot is equal to 8 percent of the votes cast for the office of governor at the last regular gubernatorial election. Initial filings for indirect initiatives cannot be made more than 10 months before the regular session at which their proposal would be presented to lawmakers. Signatures must be submitted at least 10 days prior to the beginning of the legislative session in the year of the targeted election.

The requirements to get an Initiative to the Legislature certified for the 2020 ballot:

• Signatures: 259,622 valid signatures were required.
• Deadline: The deadline to submit signatures was January 3, 2020.

The secretary of state verifies the signatures using a random sample method. If the sample indicates that the measure has sufficient signatures, the measure is certified to appear before the legislature. If the legislature does not approve the measure, it is certified to appear on the ballot. However, if the sample indicates that the measure has insufficient signatures, every signature is checked. Under Washington law, a random sample result may not invalidate a petition.

Details about this initiative

• Tim Eyman submitted multiple versions of the initiative.
• Proponents did not submit signatures by the deadline.

See also

2020 measures

• 2020 ballot measures
• Taxes on the ballot
• Direct democracy measures on the ballot

Washington

• Washington ballot measures
• Washington ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls