Taxpayer Group To Oppose Locke’s Latest Tax Increase Proposal

Olympia — Today, members of Washington State FreedomWorks expressed dismay over Governor Locke’s call for a $500 million tax increase. WA FreedomWorks formed the League of Freedom Voters to successfully fight the Initiative 884 tax increase in the latest election cycle. The voters rejected that tax increase by a 60-40% margin defeating it in every county in the state.

The centerpiece of the campaign was FreedomWorks message that higher taxes would hurt our struggling families and our economy. Strict government accountability measures and fiscal responsibility are needed before we ask the taxpayers for more of their hard earned money. Despite being outspent 70-1, the message overwhelmingly resounded with the voters.

Washington FreedomWorks Director Jamie Daniels had this to say, “We aren’t even done counting votes in this state yet and the governor has already disregarded what the voters have said. No means no. This proposal totally ignores the fact that we are still in economic recovery. Governor Locke continues to fail to understand that you can’t tax and spend your way to prosperity. The citizens just sent a strong message and elected officials need to listen.”

Initiative 884 was defeated utilizing a citizen-led grassroots strategy. FreedomWorks relied on a grassroots army of more than 13,000 anti-tax activists to help spread the fiscal responsibility message. The group is gearing up to take the same strategy to the legislature to fight this new tax increase scheme.

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FreedomWorks was formed in July 2004 by the merger of Citizens for a Sound Economy and Empower America. The League of Freedom Voters is a political action committee formed by the Washington State Chapter to oppose Initiative 884.