The ballot initiative campaign to repeal Washington’s capital gains tax has quietly folded for the year. 

A spokesman for Repeal the Capital Gain Income Tax, the committee that sponsored Initiative 1929, told The Herald that the initiative’s sponsors are content for now to let the ongoing legal challenge to the tax play out. A Douglas County judge ruled the tax an unconstitutional income tax earlier this year, and the case is headed for the Washington Supreme Court.

But multiple sources tell the wire that the campaign’s donors weren’t thrilled about bankrolling a signature drive that could have cost as much as $3 million. COVID and a bonkers year for initiative politics in California have helped drive up signature-gathering costs. 

We’ll have more to say about this in The Sunday Observer this weekend.

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