For the fourth time in the past two weeks, Democrats on Wednesday unanimously rejected a request by Republican lawmakers for a public hearing on a citizens’ initiative.
Initiative 2109 would repeal the capital gains income tax approved in 2021 by the Legislature’s majority Democrats. House Republican Deputy Leader Mike Steele urged his colleagues to act on the initiative, as the state Constitution directs.
“It should be directly referred to committee so that the people of Washington state have a chance to attend a hearing to discuss their ideas – to impart their notion to us. We’ve created this process as a state and we should take it seriously – it should not be ignored.”
Steele repeated the case made by House Republicans to prioritize an initiative of the people.
“Mister Speaker, over 400,000 individual citizens in Washington state have sent a very clear message to this Legislature – deal with this initiative and do it in front of everything else.”
In addition to Initiative 2109, three additional initiatives have been certified by the Secretary of State. They include the repeal of the Climate Commitment Act, restoring police pursuit options and a parents’ bill of rights.
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