WA Rep: Gov. Ferguson won’t sign $12B budget plan—but it could become law anyway

Despite less than a week remaining for the Washington State Legislature, Governor Bob Ferguson is still not embracing the $12 billion package presented to balance the state’s $16 billion budget shortfall.

Democrats in the Washington State Senate pushed through a massive $12 billion tax package over the weekend, despite an explicit call from Ferguson to scale back the level of taxes.

“There’s a lot of word-smithing going on right now. The governor and his supporters have said that they’re not keen on the so-called wealth tax, which is an increase in the expansion of the state’s capital gains tax,” Rep. Jim Walsh, the Chair of the state’s Republican Party, said on “Seattle’s Morning News” on KIRO Newsradio. “They’ve also said they’re backing off of the property tax increase proposals they made. And that’s true. It’s narrowly true that they’re backing off of those, but they are refiling them with slightly different mechanics.”

Instead, according to Walsh, property taxes could be raised by increasing the local portion of the property tax bill, instead of the state part. Other taxes that would be increased under the $12 billion budget plan are the business and occupation tax and the state’s sales tax, all while gas and diesel are going to go up to approximately six more cents a gallon. Walsh is calling it “a basket of tax increases.”

“I really believe (budget cuts) are not necessary if we just hold our budgets at their current levels,” Walsh added. “We don’t need these new taxes. We don’t have to cut anything.”

Gov. Bob Ferguson’s signature not required to pass laws

“How do you feel the governor is interacting with leaders of both parties?” Manda Factor, co-host of “Seattle’s Morning News,” asked Walsh.

“Better than what the previous guy did, I’ll grant Ferguson that,” Walsh responded. “He is talking to all sides, and that’s a good thing. He’s sort of a clever guy who plays some clever word games. He has said he won’t sign the tax proposals that are currently on the table. Well, in our state, the governor doesn’t have to sign a bill for it to become law.”

In the state of Washington, if the governor doesn’t sign a bill, it can still become law in 30 days without his signature.

“So what we really need Ferguson to do is commit to vetoing some of these tax hike proposals, and he hasn’t done that yet,” Walsh said. “All he’s saying is, I won’t sign this one or that one or the other one, and that’s not good enough because the legislature can pass them and they become law without his signature.”

Listen to the full conversation here:

Listen to “Seattle’s Morning News” with Charlie Harger and Manda Factor weekday mornings from 5-9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio. Subscribe to the podcast here.