Money is pouring into the campaign to defeat a Washington ballot measure that would repeal the state’s new carbon market, with supporters of the climate program now holding a large financial edge over their opponents.
The effort to stop ballot initiative 2117 has raised $2.5 million, Washington state data released Monday shows. The campaign holds $920,000 cash on hand, according to its latest filing last month.
Meanwhile, the Taxpayers Protection Alliance, which funded voter signature collections to get the measure on the ballot, had just $69 on hand in July, the last time the group has filed a spending report. It opposes the state carbon market because of the program’s cost, including a fleeting period last summer when Washington gasoline prices soared to the highest levels in the nation.
Brian Heywood, a hedge fund executive, spent about $7 million on the signature-gathering campaign to repeal the state cap-and-invest carbon market along with five other initiatives that range from undoing capital gains taxes to relaxing rules around police chases.
