Ferguson's $4 billion budget knife

The governor introduced substantial cuts to health care for low-income residents and firefighting resources, plus some recommended reading

Gov. Bob Ferguson tried to argue that his proposed $4 billion in cuts to the state’s operating budget would preserve core services and values, but his plan comes with major impacts for essential programs and key stakeholders.

Let’s start with state employees: While Ferguson reiterated his commitment to honor the pay increases negotiated by former Gov. Jay Inslee's team with the state’s public employees unions, he also proposed extracting some $300 million from those same workers in the form of an unpaid day off each month.

That prompted the unions to call for tax increases to honor the contracts entirely and drew a tart observation from Republicans that Ferguson’s budget would spend more money for less public service.

Ferguson also stuck to his play to leave K-12 education untouched. And indeed, Thursday’s news conference indicated his team hadn’t really considered looking for savings in the state’s largest area of spending.

So where do the cuts hit hardest? Health care.

Gov. Bob Ferguson unveiled his proposal to cut $4 billion from the state operating budget Thursday. Photo by Tim Gruver.