(The Center Square) – House and Senate Democrats released their supplemental budget proposals on Sunday, offering two plans to fill a multi-billion-dollar deficit while ultimately increasing total spending.
Gov. Bob Ferguson signed a $77.9 billion operating budget last spring for the 2025-27 biennium, with $150.4 billion in spending across all budgeted funds. Despite passing the largest tax increase in state history, Olympia faces another gap that Ferguson proposed filling with a $79 billion operating budget.
Rep. Timm Ormsby, D-Spokane, released his $79.9 billion operating budget proposal on Sunday, which totals $156.1 billion after all budgeted funds. He called it maintenance-level spending, along with Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, who proposed a $80.1 billion budget, with $157.1 billion across every fund.
“A state is primarily an employer, and cost of providing good jobs for state workers with health care benefits continues to rise,” Robinson said Monday when asked why the state is facing another deficit. “Our incoming tax revenue is relatively flat, so it’s the situation we’re in, where we need to find a way to balance our budget and provide the services that we’re best able to provide with the limited resources.”
House Democrats didn’t hold a press conference on Monday to roll out Ormsby’s proposal, and Senate Republicans didn’t attend the media availability that Robinson hosted with Sen. Noel Frame, D-Seattle.
Both plans balance spending through 2027, with the House budget suggesting a $247 million surplus, and the Senate operating budget projecting a $101 million surplus. However, both also lead to deficits ranging from $917 million to $979 million in 2028, before returning to surpluses in the following year.
House Republican Budget Leader Rep. Travis Couture blasted the Democrats’ proposal in a statement on Sunday, arguing that it drains state reserves without addressing rising costs for taxpayers. He said the majority party is putting the government over vital obligations like public education and pensions.
“You can’t fix budget problems with more spending,” Couture responded to the House proposal. “When families face a deficit, they cut back to the essentials. When Democrats face a deficit, they raise your taxes, raid savings and pensions, and ensure government keeps growing while family budgets suffer.”
“That’s not leadership,” he continued, “it’s a spending addiction.”
Ormsby and Robinson both proposed aspects of Ferguson’s supplemental proposal, including ending tax credits for data centers and prescription drug providers, and tapping the state’s rainy-day fund.
Known as the budget stabilization account, or BSA, the rainy-day fund currently holds about $2 billion.
“It’s not an easy decision to use rainy day fund dollars,” Robinson said during a press conference on Monday. “It also seemed untenable to make an additional $750 million of reductions in this budget.”
The House operating budget proposal would take $880 million from the BSA to fill the state’s deficit, while the Senate’s plan would transfer $750 million. Both proposals also assume more than $2 billion over the next four years from the proposed millionaire’s tax. Voters have already rejected a state income tax on the ballot 10 times over the last century, and opponents argue the millionaire tax is unconstitutional.
Ferguson recently held a press conference after the Senate passed the millionaire’s tax ahead of the House considering the proposal over the coming days and weeks. He argued that the proposed income tax wouldn’t provide enough tax relief to Washingtonians, encouraging amendments before passage.
Senate and House transportation budget proposals
Unlike the House and Senate operating budgets, Sen. Marko Liias, D-Edmonds, and Sen. Curtis King, R-Yakima, held a press conference on Monday to roll out what they called a “bipartisan” supplemental transportation budget. However, Curtis confirmed that he hadn’t presented it to his caucus quite yet.
“I’m going to present this to them probably in about an hour,” King said Monday morning. “I’m hopeful that the fact that there are no new taxes in this bill will help garner some votes on my side of the aisle.”
The Senate transportation heads proposed a $17 billion budget, increasing 2025-27 spending by $1.5 billion. Liias and Curtis also published a three-biennium “planning horizon” outlining how they plan to prioritize preservation and maintenance with $1.7 billion, including $465 million in the current budget.
Due to declines in fuel tax revenues, the supplemental transportation budget proposal relies on raising existing rates and issuing $1.1 billion in new bonds to pay for the infrastructure and associated costs.
Including existing measures, the supplemental transportation proposal assumes $3.2 billion in bond proceeds for 2025-27, $2.6 billion for 2027-29 and $875 million for 2029-31. Notably, the proposal doesn’t fund three additional ferries as Ferguson proposed in addition to the three already on order.
Liias and King said those extra ferries were cut from the bonding proposal to focus on the three that a contractor is already building. Meanwhile, the proposal includes funding to look at whether the state should consider leasing hydrogen-powered ferries rather than electrifying Washington’s entire fleet.
“Our nonpartisan Senate Committee Services did a survey of data and found that for every $1 billion we spend, it’s up to 20,000 new jobs,” Liias said. “So the 1.7 billion in additional preservation spending in our six-year plan could translate to up to 34,000 new jobs across Washington.”
The House Democrat and Republican transportation heads also released their supplemental budget proposals on Monday, shortly after King and Liias’ press conference. The House proposal totals $16.5 billion for the 2025-27 biennium, slightly under the Senate plan but without new bonding.
Rep. Jake Fey, D-Tacoma, and Rep. Andrew Barkis, R-Olympia, framed their proposal as essentially restructuring last year’s appropriations. Their plan largely mirrors that of the Senate while investing slightly less across most areas to avoid “over-committing future budgets,” according to a news release.
“We don’t need to authorize more bonds to invest more in preservation and maintenance; at least, not now,” Fey wrote in a statement. “By using existing bond capacity and smoothing funds across biennia, we are able to add $335M to preservation and maintenance this biennium, and $435M in 2027-29.”
“Bonding can help deliver major infrastructure projects, but it must be used carefully,” Fey continued.
