The Sunday Observer: Rich conservatives bankroll bid to weaken long-term care tax

Unorthodox signature campaign is a dress rehearsal for capital gains tax repeal

Some of the state’s most politically active rich conservatives are bankrolling a ballot initiative campaign that would substantially weaken Washington’s new long-term care tax.

With $400,000 in play so far, the Yes on 1436 campaign is a professional overlay to what had been a largely volunteer effort by the grassroots conservative initiative group Restore Washington to put Initiative 1436 before the Legislature in January and ultimately before voters next November.

If you’ve missed all the hubbub about it, here’s how the long-term care program, known as WA Cares, is supposed to work. Starting in January, workers in Washington will start paying a 0.58 percent payroll tax. For someone making $100,000 a year, that’s $580 per year. That money will go to pay for as much as $36,500 in long-term care, which would help address a very real problem for a great many people.

Taxpayers had a one-time chance to avoid the tax by buying private insurance before Nov. 1. Some 280,000 people applied for that option. The initiative would allow any taxpayer to opt out at any time, which would likely punch a giant hole in the revenue generated by the tax.

The program is politically problematic in a variety of ways. Among them: Many late-career workers would pay the tax for years but not qualify for the program because there’s a 10-year vesting requirement. For a deeper dive on the policy, check out this recent piece by Joe O’Sullivan of The Seattle Times.

But what’s perhaps most interesting about this new initiative committee is that its backers seem like the kind of rich folks who would be more interested in repealing the capital gains tax approved by the Legislature earlier this year.