Ballot Initiatives for 2024 going to the legislature

Signature gathering efforts are under way to certify a handful of initiatives to the legislature that could end up on the 2024 ballot. In Washington there are two types of initiatives:

Initiatives to the People

Initiatives to the people go directly to the ballot and have an early deadline for submitting signatures. July 7 was the deadline for submitting signatures for initiatives to the people, and sponsors must submit approximately 324,516 valid signatures to qualify for the November 2023 ballot. No initiatives to the people qualified for the ballot in 2023.

Initiatives to the Legislature

Initiatives to the legislature go first to the legislature for consideration. The deadline to submit an initiative to the legislature is December 29, 2023 and requires 324,516 signatures to qualify.

When an initiative is submitted to the legislature, the legislature has three options:

• Adopt into law the initiative as presented.
• Adopt an alternative to the initiative and then both the alternative and the original initiatives are sent to the voters.
• Do nothing and allow the initiative to go to the voters.

Possible 2024 Initiatives to the Legislature

Based on filings with the Secretary of State’s office and the Public Disclosure Commission, as well as media reports, it appears that there are five potential initiatives that sponsors are gathering signatures for. Additionally, they all have the same underlying sponsor and were all submitted by the same person. You can find the details and complete text of each of these by visiting the Secretary of State’s website.

• I-2109 Repeals the state’s capital gains tax.
• I-2111 Prohibits the state, counties, cities, other local jurisdictions from imposing or collecting income taxes.
• I-2113 Removes restrictions on police pursuits and would allow pursuits upon reasonable suspicion of a crime and posing a threat to the safety of others.
• I-2117 Repeals the state’s cap and invest program adopted as part of the Climate Commitment Act.
• I-2124 Allows employees to opt out of the state’s long-term care program at any time.

These all would have some impact directly or indirectly on cities. Those that repeal state funding program could impact any state funding that might come to cities from those programs. The initiative on income tax specifically addresses city’s taxing authority. The change to long-term care could have implications on the cost of that program for employees paying into it. For these reasons, we encourage city officials to stay abreast of the proposals.

AWC’s role in ballot initiatives

AWC does not take a position on ballot measures. AWC will provide factual educational information on the potential impacts of an initiative on cities if appropriate. City elected officials are permitted to take positions on ballot measures, including statewide initiatives, using specific exceptions to the prohibition on use of public resources. City officials should familiarize themselves with PDC rules regarding campaign activity.