TACOMA—Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax, a political action committee launched in July 2026 by third generation trucking executive Steve Gordon, aims to persuade voters to vote yes on I-645 for the November 2026 General Election to repeal the state’s new income tax before collections begin in 2028.
Initiative to the People IP26-645, sponsored by Let’s Go Washington, is an effort to repeal the state’s newly enacted 9.9% tax on annual household income above $1 million and to bar state and local governments from imposing taxes on overall individual income. Let’s Go Washington submitted 511,408 signatures on July 2—well above the roughly 309,000 valid signatures required. The secretary of state certified the measure in mid-July.
The Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax campaign argues that when the new state law that goes into effect in 2028, it is not a permanent “millionaires only” tax but a legal and political test case designed to expand to all income levels.
Gordon has said early polling showed about two-thirds of Washingtonians oppose an income tax and that the campaign’s job is to make sure they “VOTE YES.” The campaign website shares a survey, conducted by Cygnal for the Concerned Taxpayers Accountability Center of 800 likely general election voters that 67% oppose implementing a state tax in Washington state and 57% of voters believe the tax will eventually hit their pocketbooks.
The PAC’s objectives include public education, coalition-building, media outreach, and voter mobilization so that those who oppose Washington’s first statewide income tax mark the ballot correctly— by voting “YES.”
Gordon is a Pacific Northwest native whose family built Gordon Fast Freight, Gordon Trucking, and Gordon Truck Centers after his grandfather entered the business in 1946. He described the PAC as the next step after a year of public warnings.
“I’ve spent the last year warning about where an income tax leads,” he wrote on X. “I’ve since done more than warn: I’ve thrown myself into the fight to reverse it, with our new PAC, Vote Yes — Repeal the Income Tax.” He frames the measure as a defense of what he calls Washington’s old bargain: “we’ll tax activity, not the fruits of success.”
On August 20, 2026, Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax announced that former Congresswoman Jaime Herrera Beutler and communications strategist Lee Keller had joined as spokespeople.
Herrera Beutler, who represented Washington’s 3rd Congressional District from 2011 to 2023 and previously served in the Legislature, is assigned to coalition-building and public argument.
“Washington is at a tipping point. We must repeal the income tax before it’s too late because otherwise, when Olympia blows through this money, they will come for the rest of us,” said Jaime Herrera Beutler. “Our state should be supporting working families and small business job creators, not driving them to escape this tax.”
Keller, founder and CEO of The Keller Group, with more than 30 years in communications, government, and corporate public affairs, is the campaign’s media contact.
“Washingtonians deserve straight answers about this income tax,” said Lee Keller. “Olympia already voted to ensure they can expand the income tax to everyone, and once it’s in place, they will. I’m proud to help make sure that does not happen and make sure voters know the truth about how this tax will impact them.”
On April 9, 2026, former Attorney General Rob McKenna, and former Supreme Court Justice and State Senator Phil Talmadge officially filed a lawsuit against the state of Washington, the Department of Revenue and Acting Director John Ryser challenging the newly enacted income tax. They allege the tax is unconstitutional on two grounds:
- Article VII, Section 1 of the state constitution requires all taxes on property to be uniform within the same class of property. Article VII, Section 1 defines “property” broadly to include “everything, whether tangible or intangible, subject to ownership.”
- Article VII, Section 2 caps the aggregate tax burden on property at 1% annually.
“For nearly a century, Washington courts have been clear: income is property, and property taxes must be uniform and limited,” said Rob McKenna. “This law disregards both the plain language of the constitution and decades of consistent Supreme Court precedent. We are confident the courts will strike it down.”
Now is the time to let voters answer the question “instead of waiting on a court,” Gordan says.
As Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax gears up, the Department of Revenue has already begun implementing the enforcement framework for the multibillion-dollar income tax. At an August 24 advisory-group meeting, Senior Assistant Director of Tax Policy Tim Jennrich called residency rules and related guidance a “significant lift,” stating that the agency is still building an enforcement system though voters haven’t even decided whether the tax will exist.
Governor Ferguson and organized labor launched the No on 645 campaign on July 14, 2026, at Food Lifeline in Seattle. Ferguson cast the choice as “moving our state forward by making life more affordable for Washingtonians” versus “going backwards.”
Ferguson argued that his income tax package funds working-family credits and small-business relief and that those dollars “must, by law, go to those things.”
Washington Education Association President Larry Delaney has said that the passage of I-645 would “blow a $13 billion hole in our state’s budget, resulting in devastating cuts to education, health care, and human services.”
Two opposition committees, No on 645 ($4,935,011.52) and Millionaire’s Tax Washington ($293,799), have registered with the Public Disclosure Commission against IP26-645 and have raised a combined $5.229 million with roughly $5 million cash on hand. Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax ($207,050) and LGW ($3,471,090.50), supporters of the income tax repeal, have raised a combined $3.678 million with roughly $322,000 cash on hand.
Gordon said PDC filings show the “No” campaign (pro-income tax PACs) are overwhelmingly union-funded—about 95 to 96% he said.
The Center Square in July showed public-sector unions dominate early pro-tax contributions: the Washington Federation of State Employees $1 million, and the SEIU 775 Ballot Fund and SEIU Initiative Fund $500,000 each, plus small individual gifts.
SEIU 775 Secretary-Treasurer Adam Glickman said defeating I-645 and “preserving all the accompanying tax cuts” was “the most important thing we can do” to keep the tax code fair and avoid cuts to education and health care.
Opponents say I-645’s extra ban on any tax “measured by” individual income is written so broadly that a later court could treat wage-based programs as income taxes.
Yes campaign spokespeople for Let’s Go Washington have called those claims scare tactics.
“The Repeal the Income Tax Initiative repeals only the unconstitutional income tax that the Washington Legislature adopted this past year and nothing else,” Hallie Herzberg said.
The Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax is leveraging history, economics, and constitutionality. Gordon says Washington already taxes business activity, property, sales, and real-estate transfers, and that a capital-gains “excise” plus a high-earners income tax break the old deal that “success itself wasn’t the target.”
“Capital flight isn’t a talking point. It’s happening,” he says.
Former Democrat Governor Christine Gregoire told an Association of Washington Business audience on May 14, 2026: “We don’t have an income problem; we have a spending problem. I left office with a $33 billion budget. Today it’s $80 billion.”
Former Governor Gary Locke, also a Democrat, has raised questions about long-term accountability for how new revenue from the multibillion-dollar statewide income tax would be spent.
Gordan shared that in January of 2025, Gov. Ferguson at his inauguration pledged that “the era of assuming unrealistic revenue growth is over,” then later that same year signed an $80 billion budget built on income-tax revenue that does not arrive until 2029—fueling speculations that the income tax will expand to all income levels.
Sen. Jamie Pedersen, one of the prime architects of the income tax, once promised to ban an income tax and then later calling that a “pie crust promise…easily made, easily broken.”
During a Senate hearing on the bill enacting the statewide income tax, Senator Pedersen revealed that although SB-6346 targets only individuals with at least $1 million in annual income, no current law can permanently bind future legislatures should a future legislature expand the tax to other income brackets.
“The income tax is where that has to end,” Gordon says. “Not because it’s the worst thing they’ve done, but because it’s the moment we finally punch back…. Join the fight. otherwise, we’ll all be waving bye to the economic vitality that made Washington what it is.”
Voters will decide I-645 on November 3. A yes vote would repeal the 2026 income tax before it collects a dollar and bar new state and local income taxes. A no vote would leave the 9.9% tax on the books, subject to the pending constitutional lawsuit and to whatever the Legislature does with thresholds and rates in future sessions.
The Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax’s website is voteyes645.com. Supporters of IP26-645 are encouraged to signup to their newsletter “to stay up to date on news and information surrounding the unconstitutional income tax.”
Author: Mario Lotmore
