1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

After reviewing Governor Ferguson’s budget proposal, I can’t help but send an honest letter of disapproval and frustration. The furlough proposal is a non-starter and just wrong: asking Washington State workers to take a loss of income is not the way we dig ourselves out of a budget deficit. And the focus on cutting spending without additional taxes on high-income earners feels like hard-working Washington citizens are being sold out. Especially when Republican Chris Gildon comes out saying Republicans would basically write much of this same plan. I implore you to shift the approach here and come at the budget from a place of radical honesty: that it’s time for the wealthiest Washington citizens to pay their fair share. Implementing a capital gains tax on profits from selling assets like stocks and bonds would be a great first step. The legislature should also explore an income tax on the highest earners to make our tax system more equitable. And Governor Ferguson should lead on this effort, championing honest policies that systemically solve the budget issue with new revenue, rather than presenting legislators and voters with a vision of austerity and cuts. Washington citizens, voters, and residents are hard-working and deserve a better budget than what’s been presented here.