Washington’s 2025 legislative session was a shakeup in every meaning of the word.
Between Washington’s new governor — the first in 12 years — and a massive predicted budget deficit estimated at around $10 billion and ballooning to as high as $16 billion, depending on who is asked, there was a lot to acclimate to for state lawmakers.
As the session has come to an end, lawmakers wait to see if Gov. Bob Ferguson will sign off on the proposed budget or recall them to Olympia for a special session.
In a recent interview with The Chronicle Editorial Board, Senate Minority Leader John Braun, R-Centralia, had one thing to say to the governor: Call us back.
“The most important thing he’s said is that ‘I don't want to have to do this again next year,’" Braun said. “Well, if he's serious about that, he’s gonna have to call us back, is the bottom line. Because while you know $13 billion in taxes is less than $22 billion in new taxes, it's still way too many taxes and, fundamentally, they didn't solve their spending problem.”
Braun's take on the end of the budget season and the uncertainty around the potential special session gets at a key part of Washington state's new government — a very different Democrat is living in the governor's mansion.
Despite working very closely with former Gov. Jay Inslee, Ferguson has shown everyone, Democrats and Republicans alike, that he is not his predecessor.
The most apparent of the differences between Inslee and Ferguson have been quite evident to the public, with the two disagreeing on how to balance the state's future budget before Ferguson even took office.
Inslee proposed just $2 billion in cuts before the end of his term and championed the idea of a wealth tax that Ferguson shot down part way through the year's legislative session.
Ferguson also proposed $4 billion in additional budget cuts and listed additional priorities in his inaugural address that broke with Inslee’s past priorities, such as $100 million in funding for additional law enforcement in the state.
Ferguson has also been less available to the press and has issued fewer public statements in comparison to his predecessor. However, the statements he has issued have carried significant weight and shaped Democrats’ budget proposals.
These differences in what to expect from the governor and, most notably, Ferguson's more reserved approach on fiscal matters as well as more consistent cooperation across the aisle, is all the more apparent behind the scenes.
According to Braun and confirmed by Ferguson's own calendar updates, the new governor has met regularly with Republicans, particularly the Senate minority leader, during the difficult budget season.
Republicans have, unexpectedly, found some common ground with the governor.
“Right from his inaugural speech on, he was very, very pragmatic and very much more focused on good government than his predecessor,” Braun said. “Everything that Gov. Ferguson said tells me he’s interested in that. I do believe he’s genuine. That doesn't mean I agree with him on everything. There’s still plenty of things that we disagree on, but we certainly agree on the need to deliver a good government.”
The new governor pushed back against many of the majority Democrats’ policies this session, giving leverage to minority Republicans in both houses and forcing the Democrats to abandon budget policies and revenue streams that were central to their approach at the outset of the session.
The wealth tax is likely the most publicized, but comments from the governor, opposition from Republicans and major turnouts by the public in committee hearings also led to the Democrats abandoning a bill to raise property tax revenue limits.
“We pushed back in the minority, but the governor and his threat of the veto pen was enormously valuable in pushing down the amount of taxes,” Braun said. “Now, it didn't get to zero, and I wish, I still think, it would have and it should have, but it got a lot better than it was otherwise and we’re not done yet.”
That new cooperation has not only been useful to Republicans in blocking bills, but led to support on some of their priorities. Likely the best example is the Legislature's passage of House Bill 2015, which creates a grant program for hiring law enforcement across the state and allows local governments to levy a 0.1 percent sales tax to fund community safety without voter approval through June 2028.
Braun will be the first to admit the bill to fund law enforcement is not exactly what Republicans had in mind, but more than a month into the year's session, not a single bill in Democrats’ initial budget proposals allocated anywhere near $100 million for law enforcement.
Sen. Jeff Holy, R-Cheney, who had worked on his own law enforcement funding bill for four years, showed excitement during a public hearing for the bill in the Senate Law and Justice Committee and mentioned support from the governor as a key part of getting the bill to the finish line.
“Please don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good here,” Holy said. “This is something. The first time in 12 years, we’ve actually had a governor that's been paying attention to priorities of government and public safety specifically.”
It's quite clear the new man in the governor's mansion has made an impact on this year's session, but now everyone waits to hear news on what is likely to be the biggest decision of his term so far and one that could shape the rest of his term as governor.
The governor normally has only five days to consider a bill. However, he is given 20 days to consider bills delivered to his desk in the last days of session, meaning he has more than a week left to either sign off on the current proposals for the government's budgets or call lawmakers back for a special session.
