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Our call — vote YES
The measure
Initiative 645 is a citizen-initiated statute (an Initiative to the People) on Washington's November 3, 2026 ballot. In March 2026 the legislature passed SB 6346, imposing a 9.9% tax on individual and household wage income above $1 million per year, beginning in 2028 — and counting public pension, disability, and death benefits as taxable income under it. Washington's supreme court shielded the law from a repeal referendum as a measure "necessary for the support of the state government," which is why repeal arrives as an initiative instead. Initiative 645 would repeal the 9.9% tax and its pension-benefit provisions outright, prohibit state and local governments from imposing any future tax on individual income, and define "income" broadly — any gain or benefit measured in money, from capital, labor, property, or any other source — so the prohibition cannot be dodged by relabeling.
What YES does
A yes vote kills the millionaire income tax before it starts and bars state and local income taxes going forward.
What NO does
A no vote leaves SB 6346 in place: 9.9% on income above $1 million from 2028, with the legal structure for broader income taxation built.
The math
No official fiscal note was published on the measure's Ballotpedia page. The opposition's central figure — a claimed "$13 billion hole" in the state budget, stated by Washington Education Association president Larry Delaney — is a campaign argument about spending levels, printed here as such, not an official estimate.
OUR CALL
Our call: YES.
Washington has never had an income tax, and its voters have rejected one again and again. SB 6346 was designed the way income taxes are always designed: aim at a sympathetic few today, with the statutory machinery — including taxing pension and disability benefits — ready to widen tomorrow. Supporters of the tax said the quiet part plainly: it is a test case for reconsidering the state's income-tax precedents. Initiative 645 answers at the same depth: repeal it, and prohibit the next one. Vote yes.
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Sources
- Ballotpedia — Washington Initiative 645, Repeal Tax on Household Income Over $1 Million and Prohibit State and Local Taxes on Income Initiative (2026) — https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_645,_Repeal_Tax_on_Household_Income_Over_$1_Million_and_Prohibit_State_and_Local_Taxes_on_Income_Initiative_(2026) (accessed October 25, 2026)
- Ballotpedia — 2026 ballot measures — https://ballotpedia.org/2026_ballot_measures
Result pending. No verified call (Associated Press or official) as of November 4, 2026. This page will be updated when the race is called or certified. The original article above is unchanged.
AI-assisted article — but the sources are human, and the facts are very real.