Gov. Bob Ferguson held a press conference on Thursday, Feb. 27th, to inform the public and the state legislature of his budget proposal.
The governor presented his proposal to the state legislature to save $4 billion amid the historic $15 billion budget shortfall. His proposal includes very specific budget reductions and efficiencies from former Gov. Jay Inslee’s proposed budget. The governor said he is not proposing a new budget, only adding changes to the old one.
According to the governor, the state will save money while still maintaining all K-12 education investments. Ferguson said he will adopt all of Inslee’s proposed investments, a lot more than $15 billion annually.
Investment in the K-12 education system will not be cut; it will be increased, the governor said. All new public safety investments will also be adopted from Inslee’s biennium budget.
The previous budget for homelessness and housing assistance will also be maintained by the governor. This will total up to more than $1.2 billion per biennium.
The collective bargaining agreements signed by the previous administration for Washington’s public servants will be honored and maintained. The governor also said cash benefit assistance programs like the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families will continue. Before listing the cuts, Ferguson said Washingtonians will maintain Medicaid eligibility.
“Put another way, if you are a Washingtonian on Medicaid, you will not lose your state coverage,” he said.
The state government website includes reductions on foundational public health spending from $155 million to $133 million per year. Ferguson proposes saving $144 million by phasing in rate increases for childcare centers over the next four years, rather than implementing the full increase in July.
Ferguson also proposes ending the Department of Health’s warehouse lease, which is no longer needed as it was used for the emergency COVID-19 response. This will save the state over $4.4 million a year.
The Department of Social and Health Services is facing cuts, including the closure of one 24-bed unit at the Special Commitment Center, which provides specialized mental health treatment for civilly committed sex offenders who have completed their prison sentences. The consolidation of residents into the remaining units will save nearly $4 million.
Other cuts include consolidating and sharing office space in the Department of Ecology and State Parks, which would save the state around $2.4 million over four years. These are not all cuts, as additional agency savings are not included in Ferguson’s proposal.
Inslee reduced the budget shortfall to $3 billion. Ferguson’s proposal is speculated to reduce the shortfall by a further $7 billion.
Ferguson’s team used four key principles when developing the budget proposal.
The first one is good government efficiencies and reductions to ensure state agencies are running as lean as possible and right-sizing government. The next one examines the budget situation carefully and examines proposed and adopted spending not yet been enacted.
“The third principle revolves around reconsidering recent spending, especially investments made two years ago from Governor Inslee’s biennium,” Ferguson said.
The fourth principle concerns federal funding that the state received during the pandemic.
According to Ferguson, Washington received significant one-time federal funding during COVID-19, but those funds have since run out.
“In response to this, the state has used general fund resources to cover some of those obligations,” he said.
Ferguson and his team reviewed whether the state could sustain these commitments originally intended as temporary COVID-19 funding, Ferguson said.
Alongside these principles, the governor’s official website will also be focused on pausing or phasing in new spending, scaling back recent spending decisions, limiting the replacement of one-time federal funding and good government efficiencies and reductions.
Ferguson said his team proposed a 3% cut in higher education spending. He made this remark while addressing concerns about how the state government plans to protect higher education funding amid federal threats to withhold funding from certain states.
The cuts are mainly going to be focused on larger institutions like colleges and universities, with community colleges not being affected, Ferguson said. The official website of the governor’s office states that cuts made to WSU include a reduction of $2,200 in Native American scholarships and reductions to the general fund appropriation of about $20,823.
“We have to be aware of potential unexpected things that could happen in the future,” he said. “We have to be mindful of what is out there — the economy, the federal government- and work to land on a budget that meets our needs, is balanced, preserves our values and is efficient, while also considering what could come from both parties in Washington, D.C…there is still a long way to go.”
