A Thurston County judge ruled Friday that Washington election officials can keep a one-sentence fiscal warning on this November's ballot, dealing a setback to the campaign trying to repeal the state's new tax on income above $1 million.
His theory was that once the state starts describing a measure's downstream budget effects, it has stopped summarizing and started campaigning.
Democratic lawmakers wrote a "necessity clause" into the bill declaring the tax "necessary for the support of state government and its existing public institutions," language that, under Washington's constitution, blocks voters from challenging a law by referendum rather than initiative.
Once Lanese ruled the disclosure language constitutional, Skinder's hearing was canceled, since the underlying legal question had already been decided by a court of equal standing.
Either path likely lands at the state's highest court before ballots are printed for the November general election, since Washington's compressed initiative calendar leaves little room for a slower appeal process to play out.
A Thurston County judge upheld the ballot disclosure describing Initiative 645's effects on Washington's new millionaires' tax, canceling a second hearing in the process and setting up a Supreme Court appeal before November.