Budget & Spending | Future 42

Taxes Keep Going Up. So Why Are Budget Shortfalls Getting Worse?

Governor Bob Ferguson recently warned state agencies to prepare for difficult budget decisions in the years ahead. In guidance sent to agency leaders, the administration pointed to familiar pressures: inflation has driven up costs, Washington’s population has grown significantly over the past decade, and maintaining public services is becoming more expensive. Those factors are real....

Washington’s Growing Warning Sign: Families and Businesses Are Looking Elsewhere

For years, Washington has sold itself as a place where innovation thrives, opportunity is everywhere, and families can build a better future. In many ways, that reputation was earned. But especially after the passage of the state income tax this spring, families and businesses are beginning to ask a difficult question: how much longer can...

Olympia Works to Dismantle Your Local Control of Schools – A Key Vote this Friday Would Allow Firing of Local Superintendents

On Friday, May 15th, the Washington Professional Educator Standards Board (PESB) is expected to vote on new rules that would give the state the power to discipline or even fire superintendents who vary from Olympia’s prescribed policies, even if those are at odds with Federal Law. Yes, really. And because this vote has not happened...

Howard Schultz in the WSJ: Seattle Turns Hostile to the Great Businesses It Made

Howard Schultz, former CEO and chairman emeritus of Starbucks, discusses the reason behind the company’s move from Seattle to Nashville: Washington’s economic story over the past half century is extraordinary. Microsoft, Amazon, Costco and a host of other new companies transformed the state into a global center of technology, innovation and logistics. Entrepreneurs exported ideas worldwide. Capital flowed. Wages...

2026 Washington State Legislative Scorecard

FUTURE 42 is releasing our second annual comprehensive scorecard highlighting key votes taken by all 147 legislators during the 2026 legislative session. This information is critical in order to ensure that Washingtonians are informed on bills which were passed, how those bills will impact their lives, and how their elected state legislators voted on those...

Not Just the Income Tax: A Troubling Session in Olympia

Washington’s 2026 legislative session that adjourned last week was defined in large part by the controversial income tax proposal now sitting on Governor Ferguson’s desk. But while that fight has dominated headlines and advocacy efforts, it’s far from the only story coming out of Olympia this year. Beneath the surface, majority lawmakers advanced a series...

Legislature Sends State Income Tax to Gov. Ferguson After Rejecting Key Taxpayer Safeguards

Washington lawmakers have sent a sweeping state income tax bill to the desk of Bob Ferguson, where the governor must now decide whether to sign it into law or veto it. Last year, Gov Ferguson signed the largest package of tax hikes in state history into law, after pushing for a “balanced approach” for months....

Record-Breaking Opposition Is Shaking Olympia

With one of the biggest deadlines of the legislative session now behind us, something important has happened in Olympia. A long list of bad bills quietly died. Under legislative rules, non-fiscal related bills had to pass out of their chamber of origin last week, or they’re effectively done for the year. Dozens failed to make...

Democracy for Me, Not for Thee: Olympia Targets the Initiative Process

The Legislature has an obligation spelled out plainly in the Washington Constitution: when voters put an initiative before lawmakers, it “shall take precedence over all other measures in the legislature except appropriation bills.” That isn’t some vague suggestion. It’s a constitutional mandate meant to protect citizen power when the Legislature doesn’t reflect the will of...

Olympia’s Latest Power Grab: A State Income Tax Disguised as Something Else

A long-expected bill (SB 6346) from Majority Leader Jamie Pedersen (D-Seattle) that would implement a state income tax for Washington has now been introduced. This is despite voters rejecting a statewide income tax more than ten times at the ballot box. And despite lawmakers voting in 2024 to reaffirm Washington’s ban on an income tax....

Serious Allegations, No Answers and DCYF Leader Nowhere to Be Found

The longer Washington’s Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF) and its Secretary Tana Senn refuse to speak plainly about serious allegations of fraud and missing oversight records, the clearer it becomes that this is not a communications failure — it is a leadership failure. Multiple investigations and media reports have now documented years of...

SB 6205: A Bill to Crack Down on Housing Grant Corruption

Washington’s housing grant system — designed to help struggling families with things like loans, foreclosure prevention, and home repairs — has instead become a playground for insiders and corruption. Serious whistleblower allegations show state-funded housing grants being steered to people with connections, with at least one case involving a nonprofit official’s daughter receiving $350,000 toward a $425,000...

Seattle Times Op-Ed: Washington state budget – A spending problem?

Nate Nehring, member of the Snohomish County council and Future 42 Snohomish County director, was featured in the Seattle Times with an op-ed about how budget shortfalls are the result over overspending, not a lack of revenue. From the article: Despite the largest tax increase in Washington’s history, we continue to hear from legislators that...

Washington’s Somali-Run Daycare Scandal Raises Serious Questions About Oversight, Accountability, and Taxpayer Trust

A major fraud scandal involving taxpayer-funded daycare and healthcare organizations serving Minneapolis’s Somali community is now raising serious concerns in Washington state. Following an investigation by Ryan Thorpe and Christopher F. Rufo for City Journal and an exposé by citizen journalist Nick Shirley about widespread fraud in Minnesota, evidence is emerging that the same kind...