Let’s Go WA gathering signatures for new initiative to repeal ‘millionaires tax’
The conservative political committee Let’s Go Washington announced Tuesday that it has launched a signature-gathering campaign for an initiative to repeal the state’s newly passed income tax on high earners.
Nicknamed the “millionaires tax” by backers, Senate Bill 6346 imposes a 9.9% levy on annual household income exceeding $1 million. The controversial legislation was the subject of heated debate throughout this year’s legislative session and has already attracted legal challenge.
Let’s Go Washington (LGW) asserts that Gov. Bob Ferguson and bill sponsor Sen. Jamie Pedersen have tried to squelch Washingtonians’ say by adopting the tax in a way that prevented a referendum and avoided an automatic public vote.
Ferguson said at the March 30 bill signing that the state is taking a step toward rebalancing its regressive tax code, under which the wealthiest Washingtonians pay a “far smaller percentage of their income” than non-rich families. Supporters praise SB 6346 for providing tax relief for working Washingtonians, such as through the elimination of sales taxes on diapers and hygiene and grooming products.
LGW founder Brian Heywood told reporters Tuesday that the new initiative to the people, IP26-645, would let voters decide whether to undo the income tax. He said Washingtonians have rejected past income tax efforts time and again.
“Nobody believes that this is going to remain a tax only on wealthy individuals or high-income earners,” Heywood said. “It’s very strongly held by people that are not even close to the million-dollar mark that this tax is coming for them.”
Heywood added that his group is also grateful for the tax-relief parts of the bill. He said LGW isn’t seeking to reverse the elimination of personal-care-product sales taxes, for example, and wants to retain an expansion on the Working Families Tax Credit, too.
To get the matter on the November ballot, over the next 51 days, LGW will be tasked with collecting roughly 400,000 signatures for the effort, the organization said in a news release. The group seems optimistic that this could be accomplished, noting that a 2024 LGW initiative related to natural gas received some 540,000 signatures in 45 days.
Jesse Proudman, president of generative AI platform Venice.ai, told reporters Tuesday that he grew up in Tacoma’s North End. He said he started his first company from his University of Puget Sound dorm room, and that it went on to be acquired by IBM.
He said he remembers visiting Seattle in the early 2000s as a kid from Tacoma and “just being in awe of the startup community here.” It would be depressing to see the state without that entrepreneurial spirit, he added.
Proudman said he’s watched as entrepreneurs in Washington — a group that he believes this law penalizes — have become villainized in recent years, but that it’s clear lawmakers are laying the structural groundwork to tax everyone else’s income too.
“All of these things in my mind really have made this an unfriendly and unfortunate place to do business,” he said.
McClatchy has reached out to the offices of Ferguson and Pedersen seeking comment.
Pedersen, the Senate majority leader and a Seattle Democrat, said in a voicemail that he always expected the matter would end up on the ballot for voters to decide.
“We strongly believe that the voters support correcting our upside-down tax system and providing funding for public schools and healthcare,” he added. “We think the tax is popular, we think that it will win at the ballot box, and we’re glad to have the opportunity sooner rather than later.”
In response to the initiative, Aisling Kerins on behalf of the newly formed Millionaires Tax for Washington coalition issued a statement arguing that polling indicates a “strong majority of the state supports this law.”
“We look forward to making our case to the public that this is a sensible policy that makes our tax code more fair and raises critically important funding for education, health care, and other public priorities, while reducing taxes on lower and middle income families and on small businesses,” Kerins continued.
This isn’t LGW’s first attempt to repeal the new tax. Earlier this month the state Supreme Court denied its request to pursue an effort to repeal the law via referendum later this year.
That didn’t stop the committee’s ability to charge ahead with an initiative to repeal the tax, the Washington State Standard reported. However, twice as many signatures are required to challenge the legislation that way.
Justices reasoned in their ruling that the “necessity clause” in the tax is valid, thereby blocking it from a referendum.
In addition, an April 9 lawsuit from the Citizen Action Defense Fund challenges the tax’s constitutionality. Former Washington Attorney General Rob McKenna and former state Supreme Court Justice Phil Talmadge are spearheading that litigation.
McClatchy archives contributed to this report.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated with a statement from the Millionaires Tax for Washington coalition and comment from Sen. Jamie Pedersen, as well as with additional information about other efforts to challenge the tax.
This story was originally published May 12, 2026 at 1:15 PM.
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