Initiative to repeal WA income tax would ax revenue, keep added costs

Democratic lawmakers in Washington paired their new income tax on high earners with a pledge to use billions of dollars from the annual proceeds to help small businesses compete and lower-income families get by.

They committed to remove sales tax on diapers, grooming products and some over-the-counter drugs and repeal recently added sales taxes on services. There is also a more generous tax break for small firms and a massive expansion of a tax credit for working families.

Opponents of the income tax are now circulating an initiative that would keep those promises but erase the tax.

“We’re taking out the parts that drive people away from the state and we’re keeping the parts that allow them to be successful,” said Hallie Herzberg, spokesperson for Let’s Go Washington, the conservative political committee gathering signatures for the measure, IP26-645.

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/2026/06/17/initiative-to-repeal-wa-income-tax-would-ax-revenue-keep-added-costs/