Progressive center that opposed anti-tax measure fined for campaign violations

OLYMPIA – A progressive think tank will pay the state more than $30,000 to settle claims of campaign finance violations in its efforts to defeat a 2015 initiative.

The Washington State Budget and Policy Center was sued by the attorney general’s office for failing to report all the work its staff did to oppose Initiative 1366, a proposal to require the Legislature send voters a constitutional amendment that taxes be approved by two-thirds majorities. If the Legislature didn’t, the state sales tax was to be lowered by 1 percent.

The center staff criticized the proposal in editorial articles on its website and Facebook and urged voters to reject it. The staff time and money spent in that effort should have been reported as contributions to the No on I-1366 committee or as an independent expenditure, the state said in a lawsuit filed last December.

The state and the center reached a settlement last Friday in Thurston County Superior Court. The center will pay a reduced penalty and attorneys fees totaling $30,545. If it violates campaign finance laws again in the next four years, it will owe another $16,755.

I-1366 passed in November 2015, but was ruled unconstitutional in May 2016 by a unanimous Washington Supreme Court because it contained two separate issues.