Advocacy and
defeating the four state initiatives on the November ballot was the focus of LWVBWC’s 2024 fall member meeting. Cynthia Stewart, Vice President of the League of Women Voters of Washington, provided the audience with background on League advocacy, which has been part of its mission since its inception.
League advocacy is based on
League positions, the product of a lengthy process of research and consensus-building. Each level of the League organization is responsible for advocating at that level—the national League lobbies Congress; the state League lobbies the state legislature; local Leagues address their local governments.
League presidents or their authorized representative speak for the League officially, but the League encourages every member to be politically active and express their opinions in their own voice.
Defend Washington Outreach Director Calvin Jones spoke about Initiatives 2117 and 2066. He explained that three of the initiatives were funded by Let’s Go Washington, founded by Brian Heywood, hedge fund millionaire, and the fourth was initiated by the Building Industry Association of Washington, who partnered with Let’s Go Washington.
I-2117 seeks to repeal the Climate Commitment Act, which provides an incentive to major polluting corporations to reduce their pollution over time by selling and trading carbon credits. Funds received from carbon credit sales are being used to fund projects around the state to reduce pollution.
I-2066 seeks to prevent any government in Washington from passing laws that favor electric power over natural gas and repeals any such existing laws and other legislation that BIAW doesn’t like. Governments have been passing laws to require all-electric energy in new construction, and to provide assistance to homeowners who want to electrify, but no government is requiring any homeowner to switch to electric.
Information about
I-2109 was provided by Samantha Casne, campaign manager for No on I-2109. This initiative would repeal an excise tax imposed on the sale or exchange of certain long-term capital assets by individuals who have annual capital gains of over $250,000. The capital gains tax is intended to help rebalance the Washington tax structure, which is one of the most regressive in the country. If repealed, the initiative will cut 2.2 billion dollars from childcare and education, pre-school through college.
Ruth Eggers, representing NO on
I-2124, explained that this initiative makes the WA Cares Fund contributions optional. The fund is intended to provide long-term care insurance for Washingtonians. While it sounds reasonable to make contributions optional, it will likely bankrupt the fund within a few years.
Representatives from the NO campaigns welcome volunteers to help with contributions, phone banking, door knocking, and other tasks. LWVBWC members can be advocates by encouraging their family and friends to vote no or write letters to editors.