{"id":5276,"date":"2026-03-29T13:32:26","date_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:32:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/as-washington-gets-an-income-tax-the-fight-to-overturn-it-begins-oregon-public-broadcasting-opb\/"},"modified":"2026-03-29T13:32:26","modified_gmt":"2026-03-29T13:32:26","slug":"as-washington-gets-an-income-tax-the-fight-to-overturn-it-begins-oregon-public-broadcasting-opb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/2026\/03\/29\/as-washington-gets-an-income-tax-the-fight-to-overturn-it-begins-oregon-public-broadcasting-opb\/","title":{"rendered":"As Washington gets an income tax, the fight to overturn it begins – Oregon Public Broadcasting – OPB"},"content":{"rendered":"

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Come Monday, Washington is expected to have a state income tax on the books for the first time in nearly a century.
Then what?
A legal challenge certainly, maybe two. A ballot battle as well, its timing less certain.
Opponents of the much-debated 9.9% tax on households with incomes above $1 million a year are honing legal and electoral strategies to invalidate and repeal legislation that Gov. Bob Ferguson is expected to sign Monday.
Unions and other supporters of the income tax on millionaire earners rally at the Capitol in Olympia, Wash., on Feb. 10, 2026.
Bill Lucia \/ Washington State Standard<\/em>
Their specific tactics will become public in the coming days. It\u2019s unlikely any will surprise those engaged in the spirited discourse on the controversial \u201cmillionaires\u2019 tax\u201d since its emergence last fall<\/a>.
Supporters will celebrate when Senate Bill 6346<\/a> becomes law. But don\u2019t expect them to launch anything resembling a statewide victory tour. The tax will need to clear formidable hurdles before collections could actually begin in 2029, as planned.
\u201cThere\u2019s a legal fight and a public relations battle shaping up on day one,\u201d said Sandeep Kaushik, a partner with Sound View Strategies, a Seattle-based political consulting firm. \u201cThe signing of the bill is just the start of it.\u201d
History isn\u2019t on the tax\u2019s side. Voters approved an income tax in 1932 only to have it tossed out a year later by a divided state Supreme Court. Since then, voters have rejected variations of the idea multiple times<\/a>, most recently in 2010<\/a> when the income level was $200,000.
As a result, Washington has been one of nine states<\/a> that does not tax individual wage and salary income.
Opponents are expected to swiftly file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the new law, citing the 1933 court ruling, according to multiple people familiar with the strategy. Rob McKenna, a former state attorney general and 2012 Republican candidate for Washington governor, is among those formulating the arguments.
Plaintiffs in this suit will likely be owners of small companies and family businesses, and tech entrepreneurs, not celebrity millionaires who\u2019ve publicly opposed the income tax.
This suit, in which the state is the defendant, would be filed in a county superior court. Regardless of the lower court ruling, the parties involved would appeal directly to the state Supreme Court to resolve the constitutional question quickly.
A lawsuit to take down the tax entirely may not be the first legal maneuver.
Some opponents might also try to knock off the so-called \u201cnecessity clause,\u201d which shields the legislation from a referendum. If successful, tax foes would gain that option for asking voters in November to repeal the law.
A referendum would require turning in roughly 200,000 voter signatures by June 10 to qualify for the ballot. As it stands, an initiative is the only path for voters to undo the law. This would require twice as many signatures to qualify.
Within the ranks of the coalition fighting the income tax, there\u2019s debate on whether to pursue an initiative this year or wait until 2027.
Getting an initiative to roll back the tax on the November ballot would be a Herculean task.
It would require collecting and turning in signatures of at least 308,911 voters<\/a> by 5 p.m. on July 2. The secretary of state\u2019s office recommends submitting close to 400,000 signatures to account for invalid ones.
Signature gathering would likely not start for several weeks if, as expected, tax supporters undertake a time-consuming court duel on how the measure is described on ballots.
While time would be tight, Brian Heywood, founder of Let\u2019s Go Washington, and Jim Walsh, chair of the state Republican Party, say getting the measure on the ballot this year can and should be done.
Re-energizing voters a year from now won\u2019t be easy, they said.
\u201cIt\u2019s crazy to wait,\u201d said Heywood, whose political committee has qualified nine initiatives in the past three years. Its measures concerning parental rights and barring transgender athletes from girls\u2019 sports are already on the November ballot.
Brian Heywood, founder of Let\u2019s Go Washington, testified against the income tax earlier this year. He says opponents should try to derail it with a ballot measure this November.
Bill Lucia \/ Washington State Standard<\/em>
Walsh acknowledged some in the opposition coalition want to hold off, but said, \u201cthe issue is on people\u2019s minds now.\u201d
\u201cWe should strike while the iron is hot,\u201d he said.
He also said there will be a beneficial synergy as Republican candidates running this year seize on the income tax as a campaign issue.
\u201cI think 2026 is the better play,\u201d he said.
If opponents wait until 2027, they will have until the end of this year to collect 308,911 signatures for a slightly different path: an initiative to the Legislature. If successful, it would first go to state lawmakers to consider adopting and, if they don\u2019t, wind up on the November 2027 ballot. Such an initiative has been filed<\/a>, but it\u2019s too soon for petitions to be circulated.
Proponents of this approach say one benefit is to see how the legal challenge plays out.
They also worry about political headwinds this fall.
Democrats are energized for the 2026 midterms across the country, due in part to the unpopularity of President Donald Trump and his policies. Though the state income tax is a hot topic now, when ballots go out, Democratic voters may be swayed to preserve a law put in place by their party.
Next year, the electorate will likely be more conservative, the turnout lower and few if any state or federal offices on the ballot, all of which would tend to favor an anti-tax measure.
There are business leaders and political conservatives who want to avoid a repeat of 2024. That\u2019s when voters rejected Let\u2019s Go Washington-backed measures to repeal or rework the state\u2019s capital gains tax, its cap-and-trade program, and a long-term care services tax.
Supporters of waiting until 2027 to pursue an initiative declined to go on the record while the conversation on tactics plays out.
Kaushik, who helped steer the opposition campaign to the 2024 measures, agreed that the \u201cpolitical tide\u201d is rising for Democrats in 2026.
\u201cIf I was them, I wouldn\u2019t be running an initiative,\u201d he said of the income tax foes.
Peter Graves of the 76 Group<\/a>, who\u2019s advised business groups and Republican candidates, described the 2026 versus 2027 debate as a false choice.
\u201cWe should run an anti-income tax measure every year until it\u2019s off the table for good,\u201d he said.
Washington State Standard is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501(c)(3) public charity.<\/i>
This republished story is part of OPB\u2019s broader effort to ensure that everyone in our region has access to quality journalism that informs, entertains and enriches their lives. To learn more, visit <\/i>opb.org\/partnerships<\/i><\/a>. <\/i>
Tags:<\/strong>\u00a0Washington Legislature<\/a>, Tax<\/a>, Income Tax<\/a>
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Independent. Member-supported.For the Pacific Northwest.Independent.Member-supported.Get swept away by the new adaptation of Alexandre Dumas\u2019 iconic story of revenge, transformation, and romance \u2014 The Count of Monte Cristo. Stream all eight episodes now with OPB Passport on your favorite device with the PBS app.Come Monday, Washington is expected to have a state income tax on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":5277,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-5276","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-politics"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5276"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5276\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/5277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5276"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5276"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/globalnewstoday.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5276"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}