Unions supplied most of the money opposing I-645

What this chart asks

Who is paying for each side of the I-645 campaign?

Why it is shown this way

• Stacked bars show each committee's total and its makeup in one view.
• Unions are split into Washington public-sector unions, national public-employee unions and other unions, because the article's question is whose members are paid through the state budget.
• The y axis starts at zero so bar heights compare totals directly.

Data and accessibility

Download chart data · Open accessible table · Download PNG · Download SVG

Dataset wa-i645-campaign-finance, analysis raised-by-committee-and-donor-group

Sources

This chart draws on the sources of the dataset versions it visualizes.

Washington I-645 campaign money by side and donor type (2026)

1. Washington Public Disclosure Commission: Contributions to Candidates and Political Committees (data.wa.gov kv7h-kjye) Itemized contributions to No on 645, Vote Yes Repeal the Income Tax, Let's Go Washington and legislators' campaign committees

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record (RCW 42.17A); Washington open data. Public disclosure data; redistributed in aggregate with attribution

   Reliability: Government. Filed by the committees themselves under Washington's campaign disclosure law and published by the PDC. Committees can amend reports, and in-kind values are the committees' estimates.

2. Washington Public Disclosure Commission: Expenditures by Candidates and Political Committees (data.wa.gov tijg-9zyp) Let's Go Washington's 2026 itemized expenditures and their stated purposes

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record (RCW 42.17A); Washington open data. Public disclosure data; redistributed in aggregate with attribution

   Reliability: Government. Purpose descriptions are written by the filing committee. PDC does not verify how shared costs are split between measures.

3. Washington Public Disclosure Commission: Campaign Finance Summary (data.wa.gov 3h9x-7bvm) Committee totals and the candidate committees of each legislator

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record (RCW 42.17A); Washington open data. Public disclosure data; redistributed with attribution

   Reliability: Government. Totals are computed by PDC from committee filings and updated as reports arrive.

4. Washington Public Disclosure Commission: Loans to Candidates and Political Committees (data.wa.gov d2ig-r3q4) Brian Heywood's loans to Let's Go Washington

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record (RCW 42.17A); Washington open data. Public disclosure data; redistributed with attribution

   Reliability: Government. Loans are reported by the borrowing committee, with the lender's name.

5. Washington State Legislature web services: roll calls on SB 6346 (2025-26) How each legislator voted on final passage of ESSB 6346 (House, March 9, 2026; Senate concurrence, March 11, 2026)

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record. Public legislative record

   Reliability: Government. Official roll-call record of the Washington Legislature.

6. Washington State Legislature web services: members, 2025-26 Legislators' names, parties and districts

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record. Public legislative record

   Reliability: Government. Official member list of the Washington Legislature.

7. Washington Office of Financial Management: Costs of 2025-27 Collective Bargaining Agreements State cost of the 2025-27 WFSE, SEIU 1199NW and SEIU 925 agreements, split into NGF-O and other funds

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record. Public government document; figures transcribed

   Reliability: Government. OFM negotiates these contracts for the Governor and prepares the cost estimates submitted to the Legislature; figures are estimates of added cost, not payroll totals.

8. Washington Secretary of State: 2026 Voters' Pamphlet, Initiative Measure IP26-645 statements The No committee's statement about Brian Heywood, quoted verbatim

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. Public record. Public government document; short quotation

   Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. Statements are written by each campaign's committee and printed unedited by the Secretary of State. The No statement's listed authors include the presidents of the Washington Education Association and the Washington State Labor Council.

9. Washington Federation of State Employees: 2026 WFSE Legislative Victories (March 22, 2026) The state employees' union's own statements about the millionaires tax and the Legislature's role in its pay

   Retrieved October 21, 2026. All rights reserved (short quotation). Quoted briefly for commentary

   Reliability: Party to the dispute. Has a stake in this finding. Published by WFSE, the second-largest donor to No on 645, describing its own legislative goals.

Limitations

• Snapshot as of October 21, 2026; committees keep reporting until after the election.
• Let's Go Washington's bar covers three measures, not only I-645; it spent about $2.48 million of its 2026 money on I-645.
• Donor groups are FactHub's classification; see the dataset's limitations.