Supreme court blocks Brian Heywood’s referendum on the Democrats’ Income Tax. Here’s why that’s ACTUALLY GREAT NEWS!

Mon, May 4th, 2026

To: Our thousands of supporters throughout the state
(cc’d to the media, house & senate members, and Governor, and other candidates for office)

From: Tim Eyman
Fighting for taxpayers for 29 years

The Democrats slapped an emergency clause on the income tax bill, making it “referendum proof.”

A referendum is when the legislature passes a new law and we, the voters, have the right to put that new law on the November ballot and ask the voters: “Do you accept or reject this new law? Accept ___ Reject ___”

Putting an emergency clause on the bill was an abuse of power and I’m very glad that Superstar Brian Heywood didn’t just accept that injustice and move on.

Instead, he heroically filed a referendum anyway and hired an exceptionally good attorney to ask the state supreme court to rule that the income tax wasn’t an emergency in the hopes of allowing his referendum to go forward.

But the state supreme court’s ruling today is the same ruling they’ve made for decades and that’s to NEVER second-guess what the Legislature says is an emergency.

So today’s ruling blocks Brian Heywood’s referendum.

That’s ACTUALLY GREAT NEWS because we’ve repeatedly failed with referendums.

I wrote extensively about the REFERENDUM TRAP after the Democrats’ imposed the new capital gains income tax (“Democrats set a trap. LET’S NOT FALL FOR IT!” and “The Democrats Trap – Part 2” and The Democrats’ Trap: PART 3″).

Because of today’s court ruling, a referendum is now off the table.

So now the question is:

Is it better to do an initiative to the people or an initiative to the legislature to overturn the Democrats’ Destructive Income Tax?

THERE’S ONLY ONE PERSON WHO IS ACTUALLY GOING TO MAKE THAT DECISION: AND THAT’S BRIAN HEYWOOD. 

He is OUR LEADER and he is the ONLY ONE who has the guts, the motivation, the financial resources, and the proven organizational prowess to lead a successful signature drive to qualify an initiative for a public vote.

So all of us should / will follow him and support whichever path he chooses.

Petitions haven’t been printed yet so it’s still an open question which path he plans to take.

I’M GOING TO TAKE SOME TIME HERE AND MAKE THE CASE FOR NOT DOING AN INITIATIVE TO THE PEOPLE.

AND LET ME QUICKLY ADD THAT A LOT OF PEOPLE ON OUR SIDE WILL NOT LIKE HEARING THIS BECAUSE THEY WANT IT ON THE BALLOT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE – HERE’S WHY THAT’D BE A HUGE MISTAKE:

1) Superhero Jim Walsh has already filed an initiative to the people that repeals the income tax.

Here is the official ballot title written by the Attorney General:

Initiative Measure No. IP26-211 concerns state taxes. This measure would repeal a 9.9% tax on annual individual income above $1,000,000 and repeal the expansion of certain tax exemptions or credits for certain household goods and services, working families, and businesses.

2) The Democrats passed a law in 2022 to protect their tax increases from future tax initiatives. That law empowers the AG to insert a “public investment impact disclosure” into a ballot title for any tax initiative that qualifies for the ballot (Feb 14, 2022: “5 ALARM FIRE: If this bill passes into law and empowers the AG to slap a totally biased Surgeon General’s warning label on tax initiatives, then no tax initiative will pass ever again”).

Here’s the wording for one (this was for Initiative 2109, the capital gains repeal initiative, in 2024):

“This measure would decrease funding for I-12 education, higher education, school construction, early learning, and childcare.”

So the following is EXACTLY what will appear on ballots and in the voters pamphlet if Jim’s initiative to the people qualifies for this November’s ballot:

“Initiative Measure No. IP26-211 concerns state taxes. This measure would repeal a 9.9% tax on annual individual income above $1,000,000 and repeal the expansion of certain tax exemptions or credits for certain household goods and services, working families, and businesses. This measure would decrease funding for I-12 education, higher education, school construction, early learning, and childcare. Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes __ No __”

            

I hope it’s as obvious to you as it is to me: that is horribly biased against the initiative. 

3) For weeks I’ve heard about a poll that’s been circulating among business groups. I’ve been asking around but couldn’t find anyone who had it who was willing to share the results … UNTIL NOW (a business lobbyist forwarded it to me):

Several statewide measures will likely be on the ballot soon. We’d like to ask if you support them or not.

The first initiative concerns state taxes. Here is the initiative’s ballot title: This measure would repeal a 9.9% tax on annual individual income above $1,000,000 and repeal the expansion of certain tax exemptions or credits for certain household goods and services, working families, and businesses.

This measure would decrease funding for K-12 education, higher education, school construction, early learning, and childcare. Do you strongly support, somewhat support, somewhat oppose, or strongly oppose this initiative?

            23% Strongly support
            10% Somewhat support
            15% Somewhat oppose
            44% Strongly oppose
              8% Not sure

33% yes, 59% no, 8% not sure

4) It doesn’t matter how much money an initiative campaign has, the initial level of public support for a ballot title is the high-water mark — public approval only goes down, it NEVER goes up, during the campaign. So unless the initial support for a ballot title is higher than 60%, the initiative is …

5) None of my tax initiatives ever had a “public investment impact disclosure” inserted into their ballot titles. And so we consistently won even though we never spent a dime on the fall campaign and opponents always spent millions (and by the way, we were markedly more successful in odd-numbered elections — which this year is not).

6) Since that 2022 law took effect empowering the AG to insert a sabotage sentence into any tax initiative’s ballot title, EVERY TAX INITIATIVE HAS FAILED.

7) Some will say “We know the people oppose an income tax and we have done extensive polling that shows the voters ‘get it’.”

HERE’S AN INITIATIVE WAR STORY THAT SHOWS WHY THAT’S NOT ENOUGH.

In 2006, real estate developer Martin Selig was supporting an initiative to the people to repeal the Democrats’ new death tax / estate tax / inheritance tax. He told me he had done extensive polling and it showed the people didn’t support the new tax. It was general attitude polling and several “if you knew X about this tax, would you be more or less supportive of it?” type of questions.

I told him to call me when he got the final ballot title.

A few weeks later, he did (after a judge finalized it).

It read: “Initiative Measure No. 920 concerns estate tax. This measure would repeal Washington’s state laws imposing tax, currently dedicated for the education legacy trust fund, on transfers of estates of persons dying on or after the effective date of this measure. Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes __ No ___.”

I told him it was doomed because of the ballot title. He told me the petitions would be designed to “hide” the ballot title. I told him that’s fine, but once it qualifies, you can’t hide it when it’s standing there all alone on the ballot and in the voters’ pamphlet. 

He went ahead with the signature drive, spent millions, and qualified it.

He spent millions more while the other side spent millions opposing it.

The result?

62% no, 38% yes.

Another example: the capital gains income tax repeal initiative in 2024.

Here’s what appeared on the ballot and in the voters’ pamphlet:

The result?

I don’t pretend to know a lot about everything.

 

But I do know a lot about ballot measures.

Like everyone on our side, I want the Democrats’ Income Tax eliminated. 

But rushing to the ballot because we THINK we can convince the voters to ignore that horrendously bad ballot title, ignore the millions spent by opponents, and vote for it anyway is not a winning strategy.

As always, I welcome your feedback.

For 29 years, I’ve been fighting for our state and our nation.

Is it any wonder Bully Bob Ferguson is trying so hard to impose a lifetime ban on all my future political activity? 

I urge you to help me survive this political persecution by donating to the Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund so we can get the AG’s ridiculously unconstitutional ruling overturned.

Mail your check to: 
Tim Eyman Legal Defense Fund
17404 Meridian Ave E #F PMB 176
Puyallup, WA, 98375

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The only reason I’m still here and I’m still fighting is because of the prayers, love, and support of wonderful friends like you who’ve seen this gross injustice and abuse of power and are willing to help.

I love you all.

Onward!

Tim 

You can call or text me anytime: 509-991-5295

You can email me anytime: Tim@TimDefense.com

For more details, go to: TimDefense.com