OLYMPIA — Gov. Bob Ferguson wants state workers to take one unpaid furlough day each month for the next two years as part of a proposal to trim about $4 billion from projected state spending in the face of a budget shortfall.
At a news conference Thursday, Ferguson unveiled the furloughs and an array of other cuts and spending delays throughout state government to help solve what he estimated will be a $15 billion gap between expected taxes and planned spending over the next four years.
“It’s a challenge that is going to demand thoughtful leadership, action, and a commitment to fiscal responsibility,” Ferguson said.
The governor’s office said the furloughs, which would start in July if adopted, will save about $300 million. Some public employees would be exempt, including State Patrol troopers and staff at prisons and state hospitals.
His proposal would otherwise maintain recent collective bargaining agreements with state employee unions, which include general wage increases of 5% over two years and additional boosts for certain job classifications.
But Ferguson’s proposed furloughs and other proposed cuts drew immediate criticism from the head of the state employees union, who urged members to call lawmakers to demand they consider raising taxes on the state’s wealthiest residents to preserve services.
“There is still time for our elected officials to do the right thing and reject harmful cuts, facility closures, and employee furloughs by asking the rich to pay their fair share,” said Mike Yestramski, president of the Washington Federation of State Employees, in a statement.
Ferguson said he and his agency leaders have spent the past couple of months going through the budget carefully to find ways to dial back spending while seeking to preserve crucial services to people, such as Medicaid benefits for all state residents.
His budget suggestions maintain commitments the state has made in K-12 public education and would spare public safety programs from cuts. He’d also maintain more than $1.2 billion in biennial spending to address homelessness and housing assistance, including new investments proposed by former Gov. Jay Inslee in his final budget plan.
In all, Ferguson said his proposals, combined with some suggested by Inslee, would close about $7 billion of the estimated $15 billion budget gap.
With more than half of that gap still unsolved, Ferguson was noncommittal Thursday on whether he’ll turn to tax increases proposed by Democrats in the Legislature.
“It’s too soon to say right now,” Ferguson said, saying his staff’s focus has been to first seek spending reductions. While not ruling out higher taxes, Ferguson has said they’d be a last resort and previously voiced opposition to a “wealth tax” on the state’s richest residents floated by Inslee and some Democratic lawmakers.
Ferguson pointed to a revenue forecast next month that will give the Legislature a better idea of exactly how much money it has to work with.
Ferguson’s suggestions come as lawmakers in the Democratic majority Legislature are preparing to release their own budget plans next month. Some leading Democrats have signaled they do not believe the budget gap can be filled without raising taxes.
House Majority Leader Joe Fitzgibbon, D-West Seattle, said in a statement House Democrats welcomed the recommendations, some of which overlap with cuts they are also considering.
However, Fitzgibbon said Democrats are emphasizing “the devastating impacts an all-cuts budget would have for our state’s people and families.”
Republicans have been pleasantly surprised by — and supportive of — Ferguson’s early emphasis on cost cutting instead of tax increases.
State Sen. Chris Gildon, R-Puyallup, said he appreciates Ferguson’s spending-cut ideas.
“He knows, as Republicans do, that new taxes should be a last resort. We will do what we can to help him stand by that belief,” said Gildon, the Senate GOP’s budget lead.
Still, Gildon said he questions Ferguson keeping in place employee pay raises while trying to impose furloughs — saying it would give the public 12 fewer days of service per year.
A coalition of liberal and Democrat-allied groups has been pushing the Legislature to avoid an austerity budget, saying the state should instead raise taxes on the wealthiest people in the state who have long benefited from its regressive tax code.
By refusing so far to embrace higher taxes, Ferguson has been “only looking at one side of the equation,” said Treasure Mackley, executive director of Invest in Washington Now, in an interview. “We really have to address the real-world impacts that are going to be hurting Washington families.”
For example, she pointed to the governor’s proposals to delay eligibility for public child care and preschool that had been set to take place this year. Kids who miss out on such help at an early age won’t recover — “You can’t rewind the clock,” Mackley said.
Business groups applauded Ferguson’s efforts.
“His approach — deep diving into department budgets for savings and course corrections and focusing on impacts and results — is refreshing,” said a joint statement Thursday from the Association of Washington Business, Bellevue Chamber of Commerce, the Seattle Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Washington Roundtable.
Ferguson said his agencies emphasized cuts to spending that the Legislature would not have authorized had the size of the budget gap been known earlier. He also said the state can’t afford to keep backfilling money for programs that were initially boosted by one-time federal funding during the COVID-19 pandemic.
For example, Ferguson said he’s proposing reducing state funding for food banks. As recently as 2019, food banks received $12 million every two years through a state Agriculture Department program. During the 2021-23 biennium, that was boosted with $128 million in federal money.
As that dried up, the state in recent years has backfilled the federal money. Ferguson said he wants to limit the state’s food bank funding to $82 million over the next biennium — still more than it was prior to the COVID-19 federal outlays.
He’s also proposed reducing out-of-state travel by 50% and in-state travel by 25% for agencies, ending some unneeded building leases and reducing state-funded marketing campaigns, studies and task forces.
Citing a declining population, Ferguson also is proposing to close a 24-bed unit at the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island, which houses sex offenders who have been civilly committed after serving criminal sentences. That would save nearly $4 million.
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