Latest from Lekanoff | Thanks for joining + House budgets

||| FROM THE OFFICE OF REP. DEBRA LEKANOFF |||

To everyone who joined our recent town halls – in person, online, and by phone – thank you for showing up with thoughtful questions, honest concerns, and deep love for our communities. These conversations matter. They ground my work in Olympia in the lived experiences of our district.

I heard your concerns about affordability, ferries, childcare, Medicaid, public safety, housing, and the uncertainty coming from Washington, D.C. I also heard your resilience. Even in challenging times, this district continues to lead with compassion, strength, and a belief that we can solve hard problems together.

Your voices are shaping every decision we make in this final stretch of session.

Standing Up for WA in a Tough Budget Year

This year’s supplemental budgets reflect a sobering and difficult reality.

Federal instability, harmful tariff policies under the Trump administration, inflationary pressures, and a tax code that has not been meaningfully modernized in nearly a century are squeezing Washington families and our state budget alike. We are not insulated from these forces.

The decisions before us have been incredibly hard.

In times of uncertainty, government should be a stabilizing force. Across the Operating, Capital, and Transportation budgets, our throughline has been clear: protect what matters most while building toward a more resilient future.

But I will be transparent with you: this year includes painful tradeoffs.

Operating Budget: Protecting Core Services Amid Real Reductions

The House Operating Budget proposal works to preserve essential services while navigating significant financial constraints.

We prioritized K-12 education, public safety, and foundational health services. However, despite our efforts to minimize harm, this budget includes reductions that will be felt across Washington.

That means:

• Cuts to parts of Medicaid, including services such as occupational therapy and certain behavioral health supports

• Reductions in childcare funding

• Agency budget reductions

• Impacts to programs serving vulnerable communities

These are not abstract numbers. These are real families. Real providers. Real community members.

No one takes these decisions lightly.

Our goal throughout this process has been to protect the most vulnerable and preserve the backbone of critical services wherever possible. But the truth is this: without meaningful, long-term revenue reform, we will continue facing impossible tradeoffs year after year.

Washington’s upside-down tax code makes balancing budgets during economic uncertainty especially painful. When revenues dip, we are forced to choose between services that all matter.

If we want to avoid cuts like these in the future — and truly protect healthcare, childcare, housing, education, and behavioral health — we must build a more sustainable and equitable revenue system.

You can review detailed budget information through the House Office of Program Research at fiscal.wa.gov, and the public hearing on the House proposal is available through TVW.

These are hard conversations. But they are necessary ones.

Budget details from the House Office of Program Research available at fiscal.wa.gov.

Investing in Our Communities Through the Capital Budget

Even in a constrained year, we are making strategic investments through the $910 million supplemental capital budget. Unlike the operating budget, the capital budget focuses on building and repairing the physical infrastructure our communities rely on — housing, schools, behavioral health facilities, and environmental restoration.

This proposal:

• Invests $221 million in housing and homelessness projects, prioritizing shovel-ready developments

• Funds public school construction and modernization

• Supports flood response and Tribal resiliency projects

• Continues investments in clean energy, salmon recovery, habitat restoration, and building decarbonization through Climate Commitment Act dollars

I’m also proud to see several projects in our communities included in the capital budget proposals:

• Pea Patch Community Campus – $824,000 in the House proposal

• Recovery Café Skagit (Mount Vernon) – $412,000 toward building acquisition in the House proposal

  • The Senate proposal fully funds the request at $2,050,000

• Compass Health (Friday Harbor) – $1,850,000 toward purchasing a behavioral health facility (funded in both House and Senate budgets through a Commerce behavioral health facilities program)

• Anacortes Birth Center – $68,000 funded in both proposals

These projects support housing stability, behavioral health services, and essential community care across our region. 

Investing in Reliable, Sustainable Transportation

The House proposal for the $16.5 billion Transportation Budget focuses on preserving the system we rely on every day while continuing critical work to restore salmon habitat and strengthen Washington’s ferry system.

This proposal prioritizes:

• Bridge and highway preservation, including more than $335 million in new investments to maintain roads and infrastructure statewide

• Washington State Ferries reliability, including continued investments in vessel construction, maintenance, and workforce development

• Fish passage barrier removal in partnership with Tribal Nations

• Transit, multimodal, and safety improvements across Washington communities

Fish passage is not optional. It is both an environmental necessity and a treaty obligation. The work we are doing alongside Tribal Nations to remove barriers and restore salmon habitat reflects our legal responsibilities and our shared future.

Ferry reliability is also central to daily life in our district. For island and coastal communities, ferries are a lifeline.

I’m also pleased to see several local transportation investments included in the House proposal, including:

• Guemes Island Ferry boat replacement – $1,000,000

• Potter Street Roundabout and Lincoln Street pedestrian improvements (Bellingham) – $500,000

• Skagit Transit heavy-duty coach replacement – $3,530,000 for new buses

• Whatcom Smart Trips program (Whatcom Transportation Authority) – $409,000

These projects support safer streets, stronger transit systems, and reliable ferry service across our region.

Reforming Our Tax Code: The Millionaire’s Tax Conversation

Washington continues to have one of the most regressive tax systems in the country. We rely heavily on sales taxes and other regressive sources, meaning working families pay a higher share of their income in state and local taxes than our wealthiest households.

This week brought an important development in the conversation about modernizing our tax system. Governor Bob Ferguson announced his support for the revised version of SB 6346, the Millionaire’s Tax proposal, following negotiations with legislative leaders.

The proposal would:

• Impose a 9.9% tax on income above $1 million, beginning in 2028

• Include a $1 million standard deduction per filer

• Expand the Working Families Tax Credit to an estimated 460,000 additional households, including removing the age restriction so Washingtonians 18 and older can qualify

• Increase small business B&O tax credits and raise the filing threshold to reduce the tax burden on small businesses

• Exempt diapers, grooming and hygiene products, and over-the-counter medicines from sales tax

• Invest 5% of revenue into the Fair Start for Kids Account to support childcare and early learning

• Fund free breakfast and lunch for all Washington students

In announcing his support, Governor Ferguson emphasized that the proposal represents an important step toward making life more affordable while beginning to rebalance Washington’s tax code.

Over 40 states have some form of income tax. As one of the wealthiest states in the wealthiest countries in the world, I believe we can modernize our system to better reflect a 21st-century economy.

This is not about blame. It is about alignment. Stability. Fairness.

If we want strong schools, accessible healthcare, safe communities, and reliable infrastructure, we must ensure our revenue structure reflects our values and supports the people who make Washington work.

Honoring Truth: Boarding School Resolution

This week, I invited my colleagues to sign onto a bipartisan resolution acknowledging the harmful history of Indian boarding schools and affirming our shared responsibility to build a future rooted in dignity and healing.

For generations, Native children were forcibly removed from their families and placed in institutions designed to strip them of language, culture, and identity. The intergenerational trauma continues today.

This resolution is grounded in truth and healing.

It also recognizes September 30th as Every Child Matters Day, also known as Orange Shirt Day. This recognition originates from the lived experience of Phyllis Webstad, whose orange shirt, given to her by her grandmother, was taken from her on her first day at boarding school.

That act became a symbol of loss: identity, dignity, connection.

Today, the orange shirt carries a simple but powerful message: Every Child Matters.

We adopted the resolution, affirming a bipartisan commitment to ensure no child in Washington ever again suffers harm at the hands of systems meant to protect them.

Truth telling is part of responsible governance and healing requires acknowledgment.

In Community

I was grateful to stand alongside members of SEIU this week and to continue conversations about protecting workers during this challenging budget year. Our public employees keep our state functioning. Their voices matter deeply in these negotiations.

I also continue meeting with housing advocates, Tribal leaders, behavioral health providers, and educators. Every conversation reinforces the same truth: even when budgets are tight, our values must remain strong.

Where We Go From Here