The campaign to preserve our state’s costly cap-and-tax law reportedly paid a single Seattle television station more than $138,000 to air a group of 30-second ads during one week in mid-September. That’s more than the median annual income in King County, which has the highest wages in our state. If you’ve spent any time near a screen lately, you know the “no” ads just keep coming.
While most seem to be against Initiative 2117, the other three money-saving measures on the general-election ballot are under attack as well. The major donors behind this barrage of negative ads are people who can afford the added costs of the policies that would be repealed by the initiatives. Their wealth gives them the luxury of believing the cap-and-tax law, the long-term care payroll tax and the other laws targeted by the initiatives are exactly what our state needs — no matter how much financial hardship they cause regular working Washingtonians.
Among those holding these “luxury beliefs” are Steve Ballmer and Nick Hanauer, two of the deep pockets behind the “no” effort. A decade ago, Ballmer stepped down from Microsoft after 34 years and bought the Los Angeles Clippers pro-basketball team for $2 billion. News reports have him paying around $2 billion more to build the most expensive arena in the National Basketball Association.
Ballmer and his wife own multiple homes in Washington. A few months ago a published “billionaire’s index” put his wealth at a whopping $158 b.