For media inquiries, contact Budget and Policy Center Director of Communications Melinda Young Flynn
Outgoing Governor Jay Inslee released his final budget as one of his last acts as governor, and we are pleased that his proposal provides a playbook for how to invest in communities and not roll back progress. Washington is a place with abundant wealth and resources, and yet at the same time we are also a state facing an almost $16 billion budget shortfall over the next four years. The governor’s budget released this morning makes clear that we can and should address our budget crisis in equitable and sustainable ways, by funding our communities through progressive revenue.
“This budget crisis is, in large part, the result of Washington state’s notoriously upside-down tax code that requires people with the lowest incomes to pay the highest rate of taxes,” said Executive Director Eli Taylor Goss. “Squeezing revenue from working-class people and families has never been a sustainable, or equitable, way to ensure there’s enough revenue in the budget. To address the budget deficit, the Budget and Policy Center urges lawmakers to build on the governor’s budget proposal that protects critical public programs by passing progressive revenue.”
In particular, the Budget and Policy Center calls on the legislature to:
1. Embrace and pass overwhelmingly popular progressive revenue options that will offer much-needed sustainability in our state budget.
Ensuring the ultra-wealthy pay their share in taxes is a key solution to funding critical community services. That’s why Governor Inslee has included new sources of progressive revenue, including an increasingly popular wealth tax as well as increases to the Business and Occupation (B&O) taxes for large businesses and corporations. These new revenue sources work together to generate a projected $11 to $13 billion in revenue over four years. They also represent essential reforms to our upside-down tax code.
To address the budget deficit, the Budget and Policy Center urges lawmakers to build on the governor’s budget proposal that protects critical public programs by passing progressive revenue.”
Executive Director Eli Taylor Goss
Washington voters just resoundingly batted down Initiative 2109, which would have stripped critical funding from schools and early learning. By upholding the capital gains tax with over 64% of the vote, the people of Washington sent a clear message to elected officials: Our state’s services are important, and people with ample resources need to pay their share to support the programs we all rely on.
Now, as we head into the 2025 session, lawmakers must protect the funding for programs that make all our lives better – from public health to libraries to public transportation – with progressive revenue. They have multiple new options on the table, and lawmakers will need to take decisive action to make this a reality in the final biennium budget.
2. Resoundingly reject cuts to the budget that we know devastate the programs and services that so many in our state rely on.
Cuts are demonstrated to roll back progress in our communities and make it harder for people and families to get ahead. Following the the Great Recession, Washington lawmakers chose to cut over $10 billion from the state operating budget, leaving Washington communities reeling from the harmful health and economic impacts. Poverty and especially deep poverty rates increased in the years following these cuts, disproportionately affecting Black families because of a long history of policies that created barriers to opportunity for BIPOC people. Unemployment rates rose dramatically, particularly in rural areas of the state. Foreclosure rates went up in the years following, affecting Latinx and Black households at disproportionately high rates.
These impacts and the harm done by massive cuts to the operating budget have persisted for many years because our state’s funding has stayed at Great Recession levels, when adjusted for economic growth. Governor Inslee’s budget would support Washington communities and reject misguided, across-the-board cuts that we know will only do harm.
We are facing a budget deficit that will require many solutions if we are to reject the harmful approaches of the past. We are confident that our state lawmakers understand the significance of this current situation and are ready to ensure our state’s tax code truly aligns with our progressive values and is racially equitable.
