- Ballot measure 2117 would kill the historic Climate Commitment Act and threaten funding for youth bike education, bike infrastructure, clean school buses, and more.
- Vote NO on 2117 this November–and support the grassroots campaign to defeat this destructive ballot measure.
Washington Bikes urges voters who support bicycling, active transportation, climate justice, and cleaner air to join the grassroots effort to save the Climate Commitment Act and to VOTE NO on ballot measure 2117 in November.
Ballot measure 2117 would repeal our state’s historic cap-and-invest Climate Commitment Act that raised $1.8 billion in 2023 to fund programs that are making Washington more bikeable, walkable, equitable, sustainable, healthy, and prosperous.
“We need everyone who is concerned about the climate crisis and who wants a liveable future for our children to help us defeat this destructive ballot measure,” says Vicky Clarke, deputy director for Washington Bikes. “One of the most important things people can do now is to talk to their friends, family members, and neighbors about the importance of voting no on 2117.”
The Climate Commitment Act requires the state’s biggest polluters to cut their carbon emissions or pay for their climate pollution. Money raised from polluters is invested in more biking and walking infrastructure, youth bicycling education, free mass transit for young people, as well as renewable energy projects and incentives to boost energy conservation.
Here are some of the programs funded by the Climate Commitment Act that would be threatened if we don’t defeat ballot measure 2117:
- The School-Based Bicycle Safety Education Program that is teaching youth and schoolchildren statewide the essential life skills of cycling, walking, and active transportation. Read the Cascade Bicycle Club story about this incredible program.
- The Safe Routes to School grant program that is protecting our children by creating sidewalks, bike lanes, and active transportation corridors that enable our youth to walk and bike to school.
- Clean, zero-emissions school buses so our children don’t breathe harmful diesel fumes.
- The Sandy Williams Connecting Communities grant program that invests in biking and walking infrastructure to link rural communities and those on the frontlines of pollution impacts, like new highways.
- Free transit, bus, light rail and ferry rides for youth aged 18 and under.
- Electric bike rebates to encourage bike commuting and transportation bicycling.
- Many trail and bike-pedestrian infrastructure projects including sections of the 42-mile Eastrail multi-use trail, extensions of the Interurban Trail, work on the Mountains to Sound Greenway Trail, the Liberty Park Land Bridge in Spokane, a pedestrian bridge in Maple Valley, and more.
Click to see a statewide map of projects funded by the Climate Commitment Act.
Click here to see a list of the $2.1 billion in Climate Commitment Act investments the state Legislature has appropriated through 2025.
Repeal Would Cause Budget Chaos
The Climate Commitment Act allows Washington to diversify its transportation spending and invest in a more holistic, multimodal transportation system that benefits everyone–not just people who drive.
Prior to passage of the act, the state’s transportation budget was funded primarily by the state’s gasoline tax, which limits investments to “highway purposes,” or automobile-focused infrastructure.
By contrast, the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) funds multimodal transportation infrastructure and programs that can’t be paid for with gasoline tax revenues. Repealing it would cause fiscal chaos and tear “a huge hole” in the transportation budget, says Jon Snyder, a senior policy advisor to Gov. Jay Inslee, who signed the CCA into law in 2021.
“Either you will have to raise massive new amounts of revenue or make huge cuts to current programs,” Snyder says.
Climate Commitment Act dollars are being spent to benefit communities statewide, Snyder says. “Polluters pay, communities benefit.”
Repealing the act would also hurt communities’ ability to comply with their Comprehensive Plans and Growth Management plans, as municipalities receive money from the Climate Commitment Act for sustainable transportation planning.
“Scientists say 2023 was the hottest year on record, and this year is expected to be even hotter. We need to mobilize and spread the word to voters that we must save the Climate Commitment Act and VOTE NO on 2117,” Clarke says.
Learn more about the Climate Commitment Act and the projects it is funding at climate.wa.gov
