This November was a very significant month in the eyes of not only our state laws, but also our national identity. With the votes cast, and tensions risen, no matter what side of the political spectrum you stand on we all need to be responsible for the knowledge of what our future holds, starting with state initiatives. These four initiatives are what the state of Washington has voted on and will determine a lot in our day to day lives this upcoming year. Now we have all seen the sponsored political advertisements popping up on our television screens, these past few months. Naturally one side convicting the other of lying to the public, and the opposition placing the blame back with the other side of the fence. When this happens it is easy to get lost in all of the words involved, with contradicting opinions clouding judgements. This account of the four state initiatives: Washington Measures 2066, 2109, 2117, and 2124, will be a breakdown of what the law actually states, and will be as thorough and nonpartisan to the greatest extent of the knowledge that a lengthy amount of research has allowed.

A Washington Initiative has many names, it can be interchanged with a Measure or Petition, and sometimes it can all sound a little complicated. What an initiative does is that it allows a citizen sponsored law the chance to be put on the ballot for the state to vote on. There are several steps involved with getting a measure passed on to the ballot, currently a petition needs at least 324, 516 signatures to be considered for the vote.

Starting off numerically with Washington Measure 2066, this petition prohibits both state and local governments from restricting natural gas for the use of homes and companies. According to the petition, the people believe that having access to natural gas would improve quality of life as well as being a safer approach to fueling households. Citizens felt their rights to obtain natural gas was being threatened by a previous policy and wanted to set in stone rights to any fuel products. This initiative passed and will be put into effect later this year.

Next up is Washington Measure 2109, which would repeal capital gains tax. Essentially this initiative would repeal a state capital gains charge, placed on sales of long-term assets, like stocks and bonds over the value of $250,000. So for those accounts the owners of the stocks and bonds wouldn’t have to pay this specific tax. The revenue made from the original tax went to the Education Legacy Trust and the Common School Construction Account. For this petition the law required over 50 percent of the vote to pass. Washington Measure 2109 did not pass with 64.1% of the population voting against the initiative.

For Washington Measure 2117, over 50 percent of the general vote would have to pass in order to be put into effect. The initiative would repeal a cap on carbon emissions causing certain businesses to either limit their greenhouse gas emissions or purchase rights to cover them. Repealing a petition means that it would take back the original document to put into law. After the election the end result was 62 percent of the state voted no on the measure, making the law ineffective.

Our final initiative is Washington Measure 2124. This measure would allow citizens to opt out of state funded long-term health care programs. Allowing people to get out of paying assessments and stop receiving benefits for state health care insurance programs if they so choose. Again over 50 percent of the vote needed to pass, and again the state did not pass with a 55.5 percent voting against the petition, making the measure unsuccessful.

It is important to note that only one of the state initiatives for this year has passed, Washington Measure 2066, only passed by 51.7%. Despite Measure 2066 passing with the most votes backing it, the vote count was very close, and was won by only 122,185 votes. This was the closest race out of all four petitions. With the large numbers of our Washintonian population, it is very easy to think that one vote doesn’t matter. However local laws such as this are frequently passed by only a small margin of votes, and many times it comes down to a select few votes.

Works Cited

“Initiative Measure No. 2066.” Washington Secretary of State, https://www2.sos.wa.gov/_assets/elections/initiatives/finaltext_3177.pdf. Accessed 18 November 2024.

“Washington 2024 ballot measures.” Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_2024_ballot_measures. Accessed 18 November 2024.

“Washington Initiative 2109, Repeal Capital Gains Tax Initiative (2024).” Ballotpedia, https://ballotpedia.org/Washington_Initiative_2109,_Repeal_Capital_Gains_Tax_Initiative_(2024). Accessed 18 November 2024.