By Chris Cargill / For The Herald
State legislators in Washington state have a big budget challenge ahead of them. If they want to know why, they should look in the mirror.
When the Evergreen State’s legislative session opens next month, lawmakers will be staring at a massive budget shortfall, a whopping $10 billion to $12 billion. And let’s be clear, the gap has nothing whatsoever to do with tax revenue. In fact, tax revenue is growing dramatically.
Instead, the issue is the colossal failure by lawmakers to control spending or prioritize tax relief. The budget chasm Washington state finds itself facing is not occurring in neighboring states. For example, the current headlines in Montana and Wyoming are about major tax relief proposals while Idaho lawmakers are discussing even more tax cuts building on the reductions already enacted.
This different fiscal outlook between the states can directly be traced to the contrasting governing philosophies. While policymakers in Idaho, Montana and Wyoming prioritized tax relief and fiscally conservative budgeting over the last several years, Washington lawmakers have been doing their best Thelma and Louise impersonation by stepping on the spending gas. In doing so, they are driving the state over the fiscal cliff.
Consider the fact that even though revenue was growing significantly, Washington lawmakers not only failed to provide any broad-based tax relief but instead accelerated their spending even faster aided by tax increases, including imposing a new capital gains income tax.
Based on the response from legislative leadership, it sounds like Washington policymakers plan to double down on this tax-and-spend philosophy by imposing even more such increases in 2025. Consider this report from KING-5 News: “Tax increases, and potentially new tax proposals, will be on the table when Washington state legislators convene in Olympia in January for an historic session.”
Washington’s massive spending increases and lack of tax relief aren’t just a contrast with more fiscally conservative states. Oregon taxpayers are scheduled to receive nearly $1 billion in tax relief and New York’s Democratic governor is proposing $500 “Inflation Refund” checks for next year. Gov. Kathy Hochul said: “It’s simple: the cost of living is still too damn high, and New Yorkers deserve a break.” I’m sure that Washingtonians would agree with that sentiment of their taxes being “too damn high” as well.
It is time for Washington policymakers to follow the budget Hippocratic Oath and do no more harm by getting spending under control. One place to start is to learn from the example of former Gov. Chris Gregoire.
Facing a significant budget shortfall in 2008, Gregoire wisely concluded that the pay raises she had agreed to for state employees weren’t “financially feasible.” Realizing that current and outgoing Gov. Jay Inslee has already ordered a freeze on hiring, services contracts, goods and equipment purchases, and travel, it’s safe to assume the billions in pay raises he secretly agreed to this summer are also not “financially feasible” either. Right?
Do Washington lawmakers really plan to impose tax increases to provide government pay raises?
Chris Cargill is president of Mountain States Policy Center, an independent research organization based in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming and Eastern Washington, mountainstatespolicy.org.
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