Published date: March 4, 2025
APWA Report Week 8
Last week the policy committee cutoff laid waste to bills still lingering in their policy committee of origin, and this week the fiscal committee cutoff thinned the herd a bit more. Unless the bill is somehow necessary to implement the budget (NTIB), bills that failed to pass out of these committees are done for the session.
The operating budget deficit is looming larger as the Legislature moves from committee action to floor actions next week. On Thursday, Governor Ferguson held a press conference where he outlined nearly $4 billion in agency cuts, which is in addition to the $3 billion in cuts his predecessor, Governor Inslee, suggested. These combined $7 billion cuts are less than half of the $15 billion (over 4 years) deficit Governor Ferguson says faces the state. He said that figure includes passing the collective bargaining agreements that have been negotiated with state employees, but that news was tempered by Governor Ferguson’s proposal that state workers, except for WSP, corrections officers and other public safety employees, will be required to take a 1 day furlough once a month for the next two years.
House and Senate Democratic leadership held their own press event on Tuesday, where they affirmed a $12 billion deficit over the next 4 years, their own budget exercises, and the enormity of the budget cuts facing them. The House Democratic Caucus has created a website that sets out what a “no revenue” budget would entail using Governor Inslee’s “book 1” budget, which wasn’t widely publicized. It includes about $8 billion in cuts.
Senate Republican Budget lead, Sen. Chris Gildon, gave an interview stating that the budget crisis is exaggerated, and estimated the budget shortfall was just $6.7 billion for the next two biennium. He noted the discrepancy between that number and the $12 billion estimate is the $4 billion for state employees and other policy bills.
There are no hearings to report upon as the House and Senate start the portion of session referred to as “floor action” when the full body of each chamber votes on bills that are then sent to the other chamber. They will do this until March 12th, after which they will begin hearings on the other chamber’s bills until April 2nd (policy committee deadline), and April 8th (fiscal committee deadline). Session is scheduled to end April 27th, but we think it will continue.