Yesterday, the Citizen Action Defense Fund (CADF) announced that it is preparing to file a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of the WA State Democrats’ newly imposed income tax that Governor Bob Ferguson signed into law yesterday, March 30, 2026.
Following the release of a legal memorandum during the legislative session authored by former Washington State Attorney General Rob McKenna outlining the measure’s constitutional defects, CADF has retained McKenna to lead the litigation effort. The organization expects to file suit within the next few days.
As detailed in the memorandum, the legislation imposes a graduated tax on income, which has long been classified as property under Washington law and its Constitution. As such, this income tax passed by the legislature violates the uniformity requirement and constitutional limitations on property taxation established under Article VII of the Washington State Constitution.
“Washington’s constitution is clear, and the courts have been equally clear for nearly a century—income is property, and progressive income taxes are unconstitutional under existing law,” said lead counsel Rob McKenna. “If the State proceeds with the new income tax, it will create a direct conflict with binding precedent and the constitutional protections that safeguard taxpayers. We are preparing to challenge the tax in court.”
Washington’s Constitution imposes a strict uniformity requirement on taxes. Article VII, Section 1 states that “All taxes shall be uniform upon the same class of property within the territorial limits of the authority levying the tax.”
The term “property” is broadly defined to include “everything, whether tangible or intangible, subject to ownership.” A 1933 Washington Supreme Court decision in Culliton v. Chase explicitly classified income as property, ruling that a graduated net income tax violated this uniformity clause because it applied different rates to different amounts of the same class of property.
To be clear: The 9-decade-old court ruling is not the only barrier to Washington state imposing an income tax.
Voters have soundly rejected income tax proposals 10 times since 1934. Most recently, in 2010, a proposed tax on people earning more than $200,000 a year was easily defeated by a 64.15% to 35.85% statewide margin.
CADF Executive Director Jackson Maynard emphasized that the organization is moving swiftly to ensure Washingtonians are protected from unlawful taxation.
“Since lawmakers and the Governor have chosen to ignore both the constitution and decades of settled case law, we will act,” said Maynard. “This lawsuit is about upholding the rule of law and ensuring that Washingtonians are not subjected to an unconstitutional tax scheme.”
The Democrats' sponsored legislation, SB 6346, dubbed the “millionaires’ tax,” imposes a 9.9% rate on household income exceeding $1 million annually, with the tax applying to income earned starting in 2028; it is expected to eventually expand beyond high earners and will inevitably capture the middle class…
AS A REMINDER: In the 2026 legislative session, more than 116,000 Washingtonians made state history by signing in to oppose the 9.9% income tax heard in the State House of Representatives, making it the most opposed bill to ever come before the Washington State Legislature. Also, a few weeks prior, nearly 62,000 people signed in to oppose SB 6346 in the two days leading up to a Senate budget committee hearing.
The Feb 24, 2026, legislative session final numbers for sign-ins to SB 6346:
WAS CON 116,779 (90.2%) - PRO 12,691 (9.8%)
Thanks to CADF and their legal team, it is important to push back against the reckless State Democrats and King Ferguson, who continue to systematically destroy WA State and lay an unconstitutional framework to further their leftist agenda, narratives, and ideological policies.
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