During an appearance in Seattle on Wednesday, he also offered hints about his priorities for next year’s session

Bill Lucia
Washington State Standard

Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson on Wednesday indicated that he’s reluctant to support major new tax increases in the legislative session that begins in January.

The first-term Democrat also said housing and road maintenance are two areas he plans to focus on.

“We did raise billions of dollars in revenue earlier this year, and I’m skeptical of additional revenue at this time,” he told the Standard.

His remarks come as Democratic lawmakers are in the early stages of discussing tax ideas ahead of the session, including a possible income tax on higher earners. Ferguson said he was aware of conversations about the income tax proposal but did not have a position on it.

In the spring, Ferguson signed off on more than $9 billion in tax increases over four years that Democratic lawmakers pushed through to help close a gap in the state’s operating budget. Since then, revenue forecasts have shown tax collections falling short of expectations.

Federal cuts and the economic effects of the ongoing government shutdown add another layer of uncertainty. 

It’s against this backdrop that Ferguson is crafting his first budget proposal. It is due in December and will propose tweaks to the current two-year budget.  

During remarks at the Cascadia Innovation Corridor Conference in Seattle on Wednesday, he said that housing will be one of his top priorities during next year’s 60-day session. 

Ferguson later said his proposals would include adding money to the state’s Housing Trust Fund, though he declined to provide a dollar figure. The account is the main pot of money the state uses to help fund affordable housing.

“You’ll see greater investments in housing. I’m sure of that,” he said, adding that a revenue forecast due next month could affect the final amount.

Lawmakers directed about $600 million into the trust fund in the current two-year budget approved earlier this year. That followed around $527 million in the previous biennium.

Ferguson noted that he’s working with former Gov. Christine Gregoire and talking to lawmakers about housing-related policies he may support in the upcoming session. 

Earlier this year, the governor signed a number of housing-related laws, including measures to cap residential rent increases, expand development around transit stops, allow for more splitting of residential lots, and block restrictive parking requirements.

Ferguson also highlighted growing concerns about maintenance and preservation of the state’s roads and bridges. He said the state had “done a poor job, and that’s probably an understatement,” in this area, and that his budget would propose “much greater investment.”

A state transportation official said this month the state’s road system is “in the early stages of critical failure” due to a lack of funding for upkeep. This follows similar warnings in recent years. Ferguson’s predecessor, Jay Inslee, also emphasized this was a growing problem.

“New projects are important,” Ferguson said, “but we are not taking care of our maintenance and preservation of key investments that we’ve already made. And that just has to change.”

This report was first published by the Washington State Standard.