Teacher and WEA President Delaney Releases Video Statement in Advance of Brian Heywood’s Signature Filing for Initiative 645

Experts are Available for Interviews July 2nd in Response to Heywood’s Filing of Signatures. Contact: Lexi@powerhouse-strategic.com to schedule.

Washington Education Association President Larry Delaney has released a video statement in advance of Brian Heywood’s likely filing of signatures for Initiative 645. The deadline to turn in signatures is July 2nd.

In 2023 Heywood held big showy events outside the Secretary of State’s office where he made a big show about the signatures he bought for Initiatives 2109, 2124, and 2117. Each of these initiatives went on to lose by double digits in November. Recent polling conducted by GBAO shows that Initiative 645 is likely to fail by a similar margin, with 57% opposed and only 38% in support.

“Here’s the truth. Initiative 645 will blow a $13 billion hole in our state’s budget, resulting in devastating cuts to education, health care,  and human services. Our schools are already struggling with overcrowded classrooms and middle class families are feeling the impacts of the affordability crisis. I-645 would take money from our schools and send housing and healthcare costs skyrocketing.but that’s not all. It would take away funding from child care, raise taxes on small business and working families, and eliminate universal school lunches. Can you imagine being so greedy that you want more kids to go hungry so that you can have $11 million a year instead of $10 million a year? That’s exactly what initiative 645 would do,” said WEA President Delaney in the video statement.

About Invest in Washington NowInvest In Washington Now is a network of over 130,000 Washingtonians from across the state united for a just and equitable tax code. We led efforts to pass the state’s capital gains tax on extraordinary profits and defended it at the ballot last year by defeating Initiative 2109 with over 64% of the vote. Learn more at investinwanow.org