Lu Hill: In final budget, legislators missed opportunities to better invest in Spokane and the state

What will Spokane be for the next generation and the one after that? I know what I want to see for my sons and my extended family. I want Spokane to be a place where they can live a life filled with joy, self-determination and dignity. Where everyone can have good food on the table, access to opportunities, and an affordable place to lay their heads. I think we can agree that we should all have the tools we need to build a good life for ourselves and our families.

Yet this legislative session, lawmakers in Olympia missed the opportunity to ensure the state budget is sustainable and able to fund community priorities in meaningful ways in the years to come. While the outcome isn’t as bad as it could’ve been, policymakers didn’t do everything they could have to make investments and avoid harmful cuts.

So how did they do?

Legislators started the session in January knowing that voters want the wealthy to pay more in taxes when important services like early learning, child care and K-12 school funding are on the line. With the recent overwhelming defeat of Initiative 2109 in nearly every county of the state, Washingtonians reiterated support for the capital gains tax on the ultrawealthy and the revenue it brings in to support kids and families.

Nonetheless, lawmakers faced a difficult choice of how to balance the budget and make up for the roughly $16 billion shortfall they faced. They could make drastic cuts by eliminating jobs, furloughing state workers, and failing to honor the contracts of state employees on top of wiping out entire programs, like early learning and childhood education, diaper programs for low-income parents, children’s health insurance, and so many others.

Or the more fair alternative was to find new sources of progressive revenue – taxes that ask the wealthy to pay a bit more of what they truly owe and that continue to balance our state’s upside-down tax code that over-relies on people with low incomes.

Midway through the session, it was awesome to see legislators propose so many bold new revenue options that would have ensured that corporations and ultrawealthy people actually pay their share in taxes. If all the proposals had passed, it would have protected programs and services and gone a long way to address the inequities in our tax code. It is also what working people are asking for.

But the pushback from special interests representing hugely profitable corporations and multimillionaires and billionaires was swift. We saw slick lobbying and marketing campaigns against these commonsense tax proposals, led by rich corporate executives and shareholders who prioritized wealth- and power-hoarding over community wellbeing. And our new governor threatened to veto many of these commonsense proposals.

In the end, the budget legislators proposed and the governor approved did at least modify the estate tax; make the capital gains tax even more progressive by raising it on profits over $1 million; close some outdated tax loopholes; and make adjustments to the business and occupation (B&O) tax that helped stave off the most catastrophic cuts.

Not all services were spared. I’m devastated that lawmakers made the biggest cut in our state’s history to abortion access, slashing 55% of funding and leaving thousands of pregnant people without options for their health and their future. Legislators also chose to harm kids from families in low incomes by cutting the birth to 3 pilot of the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program and delaying the implementation of many early learning programs, amounting to over $1 billion in cuts.

At the same time, it’s worth noting other bills that passed and will make a real difference to people in Spokane and around the state. The expansion of the Paid Family and Medical Leave program will protect more workers, strengthen job protection, and create stronger support for small businesses. A rent stabilization bill that was years in the making will finally provide predictability and protection from rent gouging for tenants across Washington. The continued investment in the Apple Health Expansion also ensures thousands of immigrants with low incomes can receive life-saving health care.

It’s clear there’s a lot of work left to do to remake our tax code so that the budget can fund the programs and services that match our values, especially as we face a devastating onslaught of cuts to federal programs. Lawmakers must do that work to build the future Spokane that my friends, neighbors, and I want to leave for our kids and their loved ones.

Lacrecia “Lu” Hill is a fourth-generation Spokanite who has long been involved in supporting the community in the nonprofit, philanthropic and small business sectors. She is the community engagement and strategy director at Empire Health Foundation. These thoughts are her own.