The Senate proposal includes nearly $11 billion is for
maintenance-level increases in the next four years, with the bulk of the
funding going toward K-12 education to the tune of $3.1 billion, $2.5
billion for the Department of Children, Youth and Families and $2.2
billion to the Department of Social and Health Services.
Increased
funding for K-12 special education ($2.2 billion) and raises for public
workers ($1.2 billion) are the biggest drivers of new policy-tied
spending for the next four years, which will total $9.7 billion and be
evenly distributed between the two-year budgets.
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.
“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.
A coalition of liberal and Democratic 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.
