By Todd Welch / Herald Columnist
Gov. Bob Ferguson has stabbed working Washingtonians in the back, signing the largest tax increase in state history, a $9 billion gutshot to families already drowning in soaring costs.
Inked on May 20, this $78 billion budget (Senate Bill 5167) exposes Ferguson as a spineless sellout to the Democratic Party-controlled Legislature’s tax-crazed empire. Far from the moderate he played-acted during his campaign, Ferguson’s signature on this monstrosity proves he’s just another Olympia elitist, happy to bleed Snohomish County dry while working folks scramble to pay bills.
Ferguson swore he’d tackle a $16 billion budget shortfall with discipline: cuts first, taxes last. But when the Democratic-majority Legislature, drunk on its near-supermajority power, rammed through a budget that taxes gas, groceries and more, he didn’t just cave; he held the door open. No Republican backed this disaster, and even a few Democrats flinched at its brutality, but Ferguson signed it with a smirk, tossing his promises of affordability into the shredder.
This budget is an insult for every Snohomish County worker and beyond. It slaps a 6-cent-per-gallon gas tax hike on our already punishing 55.4-cents-a-gallon fuel costs, one of the nation’s highest. A 12-cent diesel tax increase, phased in over two years, will crush truckers, farmers and anyone who buys anything hauled by a truck. Sold in a $3.2 billion transportation package, it’s a shameless cash grab that will jack up prices at every store from Lynnwood to Marysville.
Business and occupation (B&O) taxes spike for industries including restaurants and wholesalers, meaning higher tabs at your local diner. Sales taxes now hit services like advertising, strangling small businesses. Even a new tax on electric vehicle credits mocks working families trying to go green. For the average household, this could mean at least $2,000 in taxes a year, according to state Senate Republicans, money ripped from paychecks, rent or kids’ college funds in a state where making ends meet is already a fight.
The Democrats’ Olympia machine, unchallenged by Ferguson’s cowardice, largely ignored his feeble calls to avoid taxes and scale back their original $21 billion tax scheme. Even at $9 billion, this budget’s an obscene burden, passed with smug, party-line arrogance. Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, called it what it is: “Ferguson vowed to prioritize affordability. Instead, he greenlit an 8 percent spending spree — $6 billion more — and the biggest tax hike ever, kicking working families when they’re down.”
Ferguson had a choice. He could’ve swung his veto pen like a battleaxe, slicing the worst tax hikes and forcing Olympia to rethink its assault on our wallets. Instead, he nixed trivial bits — like a tax break for community banks — while leaving the tax guillotine intact. His silence screams complicity: He knows this budget disadvantages workers, yet he signed it anyway.
Snohomish County’s working families — carpenters, nurses, teachers and baristas — are already crushed by inflation and housing costs. Now, Ferguson and his Democratic cronies have turned Olympia into a vampire, sucking the life out of our paychecks. This isn’t governance; it’s robbery.
We demand Ferguson and the Democratic-controlled Legislature stop hiding, face the workers they have betrayed, and gut this tax nightmare in next session’s supplemental budget. Snohomish County deserves elected representatives who fight for our livelihoods, not those who pick our pockets for Olympia’s spending frenzy.
Todd Welch is a columnist for The Herald, addressing local and state issues. He lives in Everett.
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