Rounding up the winners

Democrats signal tax changes, Inlsee's legacy (mostly) survives

With most of the dust settled from Tuesday’s elections, we can take stock of the winners and losers. We’ll save the losers for Monday. Here are the folks who likely broke out the bubbly this week:

Public sector labor and progressive tax reformers

Democratic lawmakers and public-sector labor unions celebrated the resounding defeat of the initiative to repeal the state capital gains tax that pays for early learning and childcare programs. 

Nearly 64% of voters shot down repeal efforts and chose to keep the 7% tax on the sale of long-term capital gains assets exceeding $250,000. It’s a big win for labor, including SEIU 925, which represents childcare workers, and advocates who have pushed for a more progressive tax structure. 

The No on 2109 campaign was bankrolled by the national and state chapters of the teachers’ union: the National Education Association and the Washington Education Association; the Washington Federation of State Employees; the SEIU Initiative Fund; and rich progressives including Nick Hanauer and Lisa Mennet. The committee managed to raise more than $4 million to beat back the repeal. 

“It’s now much clearer that voters really understand that things like child care and public schools are critical to our state both economically and socially and that we all benefit when our state funds these items,” Democratic House Speaker Laurie Jinkins said in a press conference Wednesday. 

Jinkins and others see voter buy-in on the capital gains tax as a sign of broader approval for progressive tax reforms. That might be good news for state government, which faces a looming budget deficit. It might be bad news for folks who like to hang on to as much of their cash as possible.

Photo by BBC Creative on Unsplash

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