Everyone here (especially if you’re in Washington State) is registered to vote, right?
Estate tax item secures spot on state ballot
A measure to repeal the state’s new estate tax has secured a spot on the November ballot, elections officials announced Wednesday.
Last month, sponsors submitted nearly 400,000 voter signatures for Initiative 920, exceeding the 225,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, as well as the cushion that is required to cover duplicate or invalid signatures.
A check of about 12,000 randomly selected voter signatures showed an invalidation rate of about 15.5 percent, much less than the error rate threshold of 25 percent that the office had calculated.
“Death should not be a taxable event,” said sponsor Dennis Falk of Fox Island, who predicted success at the polls.
“The voters will turn out because this is a nonpartisan issue. It is an issue of fairness.”
The Democratic-controlled Legislature imposed the new tax last year after the state Supreme Court threw out the old system. The revenue, estimated at about $100 million a year, is tied to a special education account to boost higher education and to maintain voter-mandated class size limits.
Amazingly, those “Special Accounts” always seem to dribble off into the general fund. Yet another reason to vote for repeal.
I’m a WA resident and registered voter and haven’t missed an election since 1965. Alas, I’m now a Republican and can only vote once on each issue and candidate.
Somehow it just doesn’t seem fair.