OLYMPIA… Senate Republican leaders say the governor chose the wrong side today in signing a new state operating budget that relies on the largest package of tax increases in Washington history.
Despite earlier denouncing new taxes that would hit the state’s working families, Gov. Bob Ferguson decided not to veto bills that will extend the state’s sales tax to more services and allow for local property-tax increases.
In response to a $7.5 billion shortfall, caused by chronic Democrat overspending, Senate Republicans had proposed a budget for 2025-27 that didn’t require a single tax increase, made no cuts to core services and met all six budget standards laid out by Ferguson.
The Legislature’s majority Democrats, and now Ferguson, have instead gone with a $77.9 billion budget that continues the trend of overspending and wouldn’t balance without more taxes. In all, following minor changes by the governor, the six new tax hikes being imposed this year are expected to take $12.2 billion from the state’s families and employers over the next four years – $9.3 billion at the state level and another $2.9 billion locally.
Senate Republican leaders offered the following assessments, starting with Senate Republican Leader John Braun, of Centralia:
“On his first day in office Governor Ferguson spoke of fiscal responsibility, yet today he’s supporting the largest tax increase in state history. That’s disappointing. The majority Democrats who don’t believe government can ever have enough money were unhappy with him back then; they must be elated now.
“This was already a bad session for our K-12 students and their parents because of the anti-parents’ rights bill the governor signed earlier today. But the property-tax increases authorized in House Bill 2049 will make things worse by setting the stage for another lawsuit about school funding. He should have vetoed that bill. And although there is more money in this budget for K-12, the percentage of spending going to our public schools has dropped even further, in spite of $9.5 billion in additional taxes. We need to do better for the state’s paramount duty.
“Governor Ferguson had an opportunity to break away from the politics-over-people bias we endured from his predecessor – and to an extent, he did. Republicans appreciate that he showed a familiarity with our concerns and was open to meeting and listening to our ideas. But unfortunately, when it counted most the special interests seem to have prevailed again.”
From Sen. Chris Gildon of Puyallup, who is Senate Republican budget leader:
“They say a budget reflects priorities. The Democrat majority, and now the governor, have chosen to support a budget that cuts funding for behavioral health, public health, services for children, youth and families, and higher education. This is despite the largest set of tax increases our state has ever seen, and big spending in other areas, like $4 billion for pay raises. Although he didn’t go along with every new tax the majority wants, I’m also not seeing the ‘laser focus on affordability’ the governor promised.
“Republicans chose the right side by proposing an alternative budget that didn’t require a single tax increase and didn’t cut services. Our $ave Washington budget would have been much better for our state, but Democrats voted twice to ignore it. That tells me the agenda all along was to take more money from the people, one way or another.
“This budget and the historically large package of taxes are based on myths. One is that the shortfall is more than double the $7.5 billion calculated by our non-partisan budget-committee staff. Another is that the people of our state were willing to support higher taxes, which led to the grand plan to ‘make the wealthy pay what they owe.’ That plan was dropped in favor of raising taxes and fees on about everything they could, using an inflated shortfall as an excuse. The reality is, working families will pay the price.”
From Sen. Nikki Torres of Pasco, assistant Republican budget leader:
“The governor’s actions have fallen short of his words. In January he said our state was unaffordable; by approving both the budget and tax increases today, he is making Washington even more unaffordable.
“Governor Ferguson warned his fellow Democrats about using gimmicks to balance the budget, but they did it anyway, and he didn’t veto it. He said he would support a ‘reasonable amount of progressive revenue,’ but signed off on a tax package that is much worse. Only one tax qualifies as progressive, and the biggest of the taxes will increase the cost of virtually everything Washingtonians buy, including food, housing, healthcare, prescription drugs… even TV streaming.
“The governor said protecting working families from higher taxes was ‘the most important thing.’ This budget and the tax bills do the opposite. He should have vetoed the whole thing and called us back to Olympia to try again. Republicans had a better way.”
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