Anti-tax initiative activist Tim Eyman and Northwest Progressive Institute founder and Executive Director Andrew Villeneuve were passionate in their reactions to the ruling by Douglas County Superior Court Judge Brian Huber that Washington state’s capital gains income tax is unconstitutional.
“Ignore the lower court judge’s ruling on capital gains tax – [Gov. Jay] Inslee’s supreme court certainly will,” Eyman said in a Wednesday email blast. “They only need 5 of Inslee’s 9 judges to reverse this. The people by initiative, not judges with lawsuits, will kill off income taxes in Washington state.”
Eyman’s email includes portraits of the nine members of the Washington State Supreme Court with this question above the photos: “Can you find one judge (let alone five) out of these 9 on the state supreme court who gives a crap what a Waterville judge thinks?”
In fact, Gov. Inslee appointed five of the nine current Washington Supreme Court justices. Also appointed by Inslee: Judge Huber.
Eyman, who maintains a Permanent Offense website chronicling his fight against new and higher taxes, explained his fear on in the email.
“If anything, this ruling is a set back for our side. Why?” he asked. “Because this case is now tee’d up for what the Seattle crazies have wanted for years: the chance for their supreme court to reverse 100 years of legal precedent and rule that income isn’t property and therefor any income tax is constitutional.”
While a cynical Eyman expects the state’s highest court to reverse Huber’s ruling, Villeneuve – whose organization operates a Permanent Defense website in opposition to Eyman’s activities – hopes the state Supreme Court will do just that.
“NPI strongly disagrees with Judge Huber’s ruling in the Quinn case and appreciates Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s swift pledge to appeal to the Washington State Supreme Court,” Villeneuve said in an email to The Center Square.
He expressed some confidence the high court would overturn Tuesday’s lower court ruling, which he characterized as a temporary victory for opponents of the tax.
“While the plaintiffs have obtained the favorable initial ruling that they wanted, the Supreme Court will have the final say on this matter, and the Supreme Court has historically not hesitated to overturn trial courts when they have incorrectly interpreted the Constitution or state law,” Villeneuve said.
He referred to past state Supreme Court decisions that reversed lower courts.
“For example, in 2018, after the gun lobby won a ruling in Thurston County Superior Court keeping I-1639 off the ballot, the Supreme Court overturned it,” Villeneuve said. “And in 2020, after King County Superior Court Judge Marshall Ferguson oddly upheld most of Tim Eyman’s I-976 [which cut the price of all car tabs to $30] as constitutional when it plainly wasn’t, the Supreme Court reversed him. It happens frequently, and our team wouldn’t be surprised if it happens in this case too.”
Still, nothing is decided yet.
“If the Supreme Court decides for the defendants, that will set an important legal precedent supporting just and equitable progressive tax reform,” Villeneuve stated. “If the Supreme Court decides for the plaintiffs, that would undo a lot of hard work to fix our upside down tax code, but we would be undaunted.”
