An icy reception for Gov. Bob Ferguson’s proposed budget cuts

Reviews are in for Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson’s debut budget blueprint. They are mostly two thumbs down.

In the course of six hours of public hearings over three days last week, dozens of people criticized the governor’s approach to closing a projected $2.3 billion shortfall.

They booed his push to cap access to a coveted child care program, cut funding for public schools and colleges, and redirect climate dollars away from pollution reduction and toward tax credits for low-income working families.

There was applause for Ferguson’s embrace of an income tax on millionaire-earners. But because it could be years before it might generate revenue, testifiers urged members of the House and Senate budget-writing committees to find ways to raise money sooner.

A recurring theme was the lasting negative effects of further paring public resources after the widespread reductions made last year to plug a budget hole that Ferguson pegged at $16 billion over four years.

Tyler Muench of the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction said “significant cuts” proposed to popular programs like Running Start and cancellation of a planned funding boost for rural school districts carry longer-term consequences.

“OSPI cannot continue to absorb cuts and still deliver services that Washingtonians expect and deserve,” he said.

Ferguson’s budget director foresaw the negative response and empathized with lawmakers who are crafting their own spending plans in the House and Senate.

“It’s a very difficult set of budget decisions that we dealt with and that you all will have in front of you as well,” said K.D. Chapman-See, Ferguson’s chief budget writer, in presenting the governor’s proposal at hearings in the House Appropriations and Senate Ways and Means committees.

More in the article. I've also crossposted this to lemmy.world/c/Washington.