Dennis Falk and Dick Patten were discussing how unfair the inheritance tax was. We decided to research the subject. We started with an idea, we had no money, and we knew the State was an aggressive enforcer but the Death Tax was wrong.

With sixteen friends on the steering committee and Barbara Lindsay as our campaign manager, we turned in approximately 175,000 signatures (we needed approximately 125,000 signatures). We had one of the lowest signature throw out percentages recorded at the Secretary of State’s office.

At the general election, November 3, 1981, the voters approved the initiative with 67 percent thus abolishing the Inheritance and gift tax in Washington State effective January 1, 1982. The initiative did leave in place a percentage called the “Federal credit” or sometimes called a “pick-up tax” where the State in essence got a donation from the Federal Government. The taxed estate had no additional assessment because had the State of Washington not received the percentage the Federal Government would take the full assessment. According to the Secretary of State, our committee spent $225,335 and our opposition only raised $823.

Washington voters abolished inheritance and gift taxes in 1981, with YES – 610,507 (67.24%) and NO 297,445 (32.76%). That is more than 2 to 1 to make death not a taxable event.

As you can see with the vote – THE VOTERS TOOK CHARGE AND VOTED YES TO REPEAL THE DEATH TAX