Estate tax initiative to be on ballot

OLYMPIA – A measure to repeal the state’s new estate tax has secured a spot on the November ballot, elections officials announced Wednesday.

Last month, sponsors submitted nearly 400,000 voter signatures for Initiative 920, exceeding the 225,000 valid signatures needed to qualify for the ballot, as well as the cushion that is required to cover duplicate or invalid signatures.

A check of about 12,000 randomly selected voter signatures showed an invalidation rate of about 15.5 percent, less than the error rate threshold of 25 percent that the office had calculated.

“Death should not be a taxable event,” said sponsor Dennis Falk, of Fox Island, who predicted success at the polls. “The voters will turn out because this is a nonpartisan issue. It is an issue of fairness.”

The Democratic-controlled Legislature imposed the tax last year after the state Supreme Court threw out the old system. The revenue, estimated at about $100 million a year, is tied to a special education account to boost higher education and to maintain voter-mandated class size limits.

I-920 is the first initiative to make the ballot officially. Secretary of State Sam Reed’s office is still verifying signatures on measures that would require the government to pay landowners for regulations that damage property values, or waive those laws, and another that would force a renewable energy standard for large utilities.

Tim Eyman’s third run at $30 car tabs is in danger after failing a preliminary check of its petition signatures. Reed now is conducting a full count of Eyman’s petitions, which could take until September to complete.