For months, Washington employees have been waiting to file for exemption from the WA Cares Fund. For months, it was said that the online exemption tool would launch October 1, 2021. And so far, Washington employees will continue to wait. The online tool is not working, and at present there is no estimation for when it will be ready for use. Link here.

For those who sought and purchased private long-term care insurance, the waiting game continues to find out if the state will honor their private purchase and exempt them from the state program.

One team member even told us their call to ESD to inquire about expected portal availability took 70 minutes to get a response.

Initiative 1436

Former state Representative Cary Condotta is leading the charge for a legislative initiative. While it would not fully repeal the WA Cares tax, it offers an important fix to the poorly designed program:

an opt-in/opt-out clause for any reason, at any time.

The Fair, Free, Flat, Open team is working with Washington chambers of commerce to encourage them to distribute the initiative petitions, and gather signatures from their members and citizens.

A word of caution – the signatures must be only from registered Washington State voters. A full sheet of signatures is at risk of being excluded if even one signatory is not an in-state voter. Reach out to bryan_ricker@selinc.com if you have questions or ideas. And feel free to use the image below to spread the word!