Budget battle to dominate new Washington legislative session
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Prepare for clashes over taxes as Washington state lawmakers convene Monday in Olympia for a new legislative session.
Why it matters: Top Democratic legislators are eyeing new tax measures to help close a multibillion-dollar state budget hole. But Governor-elect Bob Ferguson has called for across-the-board cuts, setting the stage for months of Democratic infighting.
State of play: Ferguson, a Democrat who will be sworn in Wednesday, will be the state's first new governor in 12 years.
- Democrats control the state House 59-39 and the state Senate 30-19, after gaining a seat in each chamber in the November election.
- Last month, outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee proposed raising billions of dollars in new taxes to help close a shortfall his budget office projected as reaching $10 billion to $12 billion over the next four years.
- Inslee also proposed about $3 billion in savings and one-time fund transfers, which would mean delaying a planned expansion of state-run preschool programs.
The latest: Last Thursday, Ferguson called for cutting the state's operating budget by another $4.4 billion separate from Inslee's proposed reductions.
- Ferguson said that would mean cutting most state agency budgets by about 6%, except for K-12 education and public safety agencies.
- "We are not going to tax our way out of this thing — not going to happen," Ferguson told reporters.
- Ferguson also expressed "deep skepticism" of a proposed wealth tax that Inslee and some legislative Democrats support.
What they're saying: House and Senate leaders said they plan to scour the budget to find potential savings, but they don't think that will be enough.
- House Speaker Laurie Jinkins (D-Tacoma) said she doesn't want to repeat the kind of cuts the state made during the Great Recession, which she said created long-term problems paying for affordable housing, education and behavioral health.
- Ultimately, "it is hard for me to imagine" that lawmakers won't need to look at some type of revenue, Jinkins said at a legislative preview panel last week.
- Senate Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen, D-Seattle, said the November election results — in which voters rejected an attempt to repeal the state's capital gains tax and voted against making the state's long-term care tax optional — show that Washington voters support taxes to pay for programs they think are needed.
The other side: Republicans, who are in the minority in both legislative chambers, said the problem is that the state budget has grown at an unsustainable rate in recent years.
- "We have a spending problem, we don't have a revenue problem," said state Rep. Travis Couture, (R-Allyn), the top Republican on the state House budget-writing committee.
- The state's current two-year operating budget spends more than $71 billion, up from about $44 billion that lawmakers approved in 2017.
What's next: House and Senate leaders will release separate budget proposals in the coming weeks. Lawmakers will then have to negotiate and vote on a final spending plan.
- The 105-day session is scheduled to adjourn April 27.
Go deeper: 5 bills we're watching as Washington's Legislature convenes