Petition
We the undersigned demand that the Washington State Legislature pass a capital gains tax on sales of stocks, bonds, and investment property (exempting primary home sales) this year to fund schools.

Problem
WA public schools are still underfunded. Meanwhile, Washington State has the #1 most regressive taxes of any state in the country with minimum wage workers paying a 5x bigger share of their income in state taxes than the top 1%. Families and educators are pushed out of school districts, while we have some of the richest people in the world living in our state who go virtually untaxed. This needs to change.

The voter-passed initiative for smaller class sizes for all students is still unfunded and not implemented, but instead of taxing the massive wealth in this state, districts are looking to lay off educators!

Solution
As an immediate step, the Washington State Legislature must pass a capital gains tax in 2019 to fund schools (7-9% would raise an estimated $800m - over $1 billion/year). This tax would affect sellers of large amounts of stocks, bonds, or investment/high end property. Some Unlike Washington's other taxes, this would be paid by those who have the most money to spare, rather than those who have the least. For the first time, Gov. Inslee has put a capital gains tax in his budget proposal. Unfortunately, the Democrat-controlled state legislature already indicated they might not pass it. Now these politicians need to be pushed to follow through on passing a capital gains tax this year, and not water it down or let it fail and pass more regressive taxes instead as they did last year.

Who are we?
ACDC (Against Cuts & Displacement of Communities) is a grassroots group of educators, parents, and other community members who are coming together to fight for taxing the super-wealthy in Washington State to fund schools and more, rather than choosing between taxing those that can't afford it or cutting vital social services. If you have questions or want to get involved, contact us at ACDCWashington@gmail.com