By Bill Lucia | Editor
When Washington’s new income tax on higher earners passed earlier this year, estimates attached to the bill showed it would generate $2.7 billion for the next budget and $6.9 billion for the following two-year fiscal cycle. Now, three months before an initiative to repeal the tax appears on ballots statewide, the state’s Department of Revenue has revised those numbers, predicting this new levy will bring in $3.1 billion in the initial fiscal year and roughly $8.3 billion in the 2029-31 biennium. The figures will go before voters as they decide whether to uphold the tax. And if the tax survives, the higher estimates could also mean lawmakers will need to make fewer cuts to balance the budget.
Also in today’s edition…
A candidate who would be Washington’s first openly transgender lawmaker is on track to win a seat in the state House this year.
And, as the clock ticks toward Election Day, a legal battle remains unsettled over President Trump’s executive order to set new restrictions on mail-in voting.
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By Jerry Cornfield
The new income tax revenue estimates appeared without notice last month, tucked into a chart in the online statement describing the potential fiscal consequences of Initiative 645, which aims to repeal the tax. The Department of Revenue did the calculations and the Office of Financial Management wrote the document, which will be in voter pamphlets this fall. Revenue officials say that improvements in the economy factored into the higher numbers. The analysis also found that 25,000 households would pay the income tax, up from 21,000 discussed during the last legislative session.
Jaelynn Scott is likely to represent the 37th District in the Washington state Legislature. (Photo courtesy of the Jaelynn Scott campaign)
By Jake Goldstein-Street
Seattle-area candidate Jaelynn Scott is set to become Washington’s first openly transgender legislator. Scott breezed through last week’s primary with over 88% of the vote, facing only a college student running as an independent. She could also be one of only two Democratic Socialists of America lawmakers in the Legislature when next year’s session kicks off. “I think it’s important that people see themselves in me, and the fact that they can run and they can win,” Scott told the Standard. Scott, who leads the Black trans advocacy organization the Lavender Rights Project, is running to represent the 37th Legislative District in south Seattle.
By Jacob Fischler
With Election Day less than 12 weeks away, the Trump administration is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to quickly decide a dispute over the president’s executive order on mail-in voting. On Tuesday, a federal judge in Massachusetts blocked the order from taking effect anywhere in the country. The case is on the Supreme Court’s emergency docket. A decision from the high court could come any day.
The order would require states to send the federal government lists of voters who intend to vote by mail ahead of the election and restrict the U.S. Postal Service from delivering ballots to or from people not on the list, among other things.
The administration has sought to focus arguments on the narrow legal question of whether an executive order can be challenged before an agency, in this case the U.S. Postal Service and the Department of Homeland Security, issues a final rule. The government argues that the executive order only instructs the agencies to issue rules, and those rules are not yet final, and therefore cannot be challenged.
ICYMI
WA child welfare deaths continue to drop after spiking last year | Jake Goldstein-Street
Seismic worries fuel exodus from WA transportation agency’s headquarters | Jerry Cornfield
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