Dear friends and neighbors,

The biggest issues we’re facing this session are the six initiatives to the Legislature that I’m sure you’ve heard so much about. More than 400,000 voters signed petitions to put these six initiatives before us – the Legislature has the opportunity to pass them directly into law, let them go to the voters on the November general election ballot, or pass an alternative plan which voters would have the chance to vote on alongside the initiative.

I’ve been getting a lot of emails about these initiatives, and I thought it made sense to send you all this newsletter, being clear about where I stand on all six.

I-2113 would restore vehicular pursuit tools to law enforcement. I’m strongly in favor of this. The Legislature went too far in restricting the ability of police to pursue suspects, and I helped lead the effort to restore some of the pursuit authority for law enforcement last year. That was a compromise position, but this initiative would take us the rest of the way in restoring pursuit authority, and that makes sense to me.

I-2117 would repeal the Climate Commitment Act, the state’s cap-and-trade program. I’ve emailed you about this one before, and I think it’s the most complicated and challenging initiative facing us. The short version is: climate change is real, and investing in energy efficiency and environmental protections is the right thing to do. But we can’t do this on the backs of working families, and I’m very concerned about the impact we’ve seen on affordability and gas prices. I’ve presented an alternative plan that I think makes more sense than repealing the Climate Commitment Act outright or leaving it as-is – you can read more about that here.

I-2081 would establish a parents’ bill of rights. I’m in favor of this initiative. Parents absolutely deserve to know what their children are learning and be involved in what’s happening in school. When I first heard about this initiative, I was worried it might be used to harm LGBTQ children, but after talking with the Senate’s nonpartisan policy staff, I don’t think that’ll be the case. Frankly, nearly all of what’s in this initiative is already in state law. Codifying it and making it clear to parents how they can get involved makes sense to me.

I-2109 would repeal the capital gains excise tax imposed on sales and exchanges of long-term capital assets by individuals with capital gains more than $250,000. I voted against creating the capital gains tax in the first place. Washington’s tax code has a lot of problems, but if we want to make our tax system more progressive, raising taxes on the rich should be balanced out by lowering taxes on lower and middle-income families rather than just growing state revenue.

I-2111 would codify Washington state’s longstanding tradition of prohibiting state and local personal income taxes. This was another easy one to support for me. I’ve never supported an income tax.

I-2124 enables working individuals to choose not to participate in the Washington Cares Fund, a long-term care payroll tax program. I voted against starting Washington Cares in the first place, and I have a lot of concerns about it. It’s taking money out of folks’ paychecks for a benefit many people will never be able to take advantage of. I support this initiative.

So that’s where I stand. I hope that the Legislature acts on these ourselves, but I expect some (if not all) of them will go to the voters to decide in November, so you’ll get the opportunity to weigh in along with me. That’s the power of democracy!

Town hall details

I want to make sure you all know about my upcoming town hall event with my seatmates, Rep. Lisa Callan and Rep. Bill Ramos!

Saturday, Feb 17, 11 am – 12 pm

Tahoma High School Performing Arts Theater

23499 SE Tahoma Way

Maple Valley, WA 98038

It would be great to see you there! This is an important opportunity to hear your questions and feedback on all the issues we’re facing. If you can’t make it, you can always reach me on email at Mark.Mullet@leg.wa.gov. Thanks so much, and I’m looking forward to staying in touch!

Sen. Mark Mullet