The cost of Inslee’s legacy: Runaway spending and struggling taxpayers

As Governor Jay Inslee’s time in office draws to a close, another defining feature of his legacy has come into focus: runaway spending. Throughout his 12-year tenure, Inslee has consistently prioritized expanding the size of government to institute extreme policies over providing relief to the taxpayers who are increasingly struggling under the weight of inflation, rising costs, and rising taxes.

Let’s take a look at the numbers. The Washington Policy Center reported that, “The state’s operating budget has more than doubled in the past 10 years, while the population grew only 14 percent.” In 2024, there was even a budget surplus on the table, but Inslee and the legislature decided to use that as an excuse to spend an additional $1 billion in new spending projects rather than delivering broad-based tax relief to families struggling with rising costs due to inflation.

And that wasn’t the first time Inslee ignored the plight of hard working families. The Center Square reported back in 2022 that as Americans continued to take financial beatings at the hands of their governor’s COVID policies, Inslee refused to consider reducing sales taxes, property taxes, or suspending the gas tax. 

It would be one thing if our tax dollars were spent effectively or efficiently, but Inslee has a track record of throwing good money after bad. Let’s use the Governor’s effort to end homelessness as an example. 

According to the Washington State Standard, in the past 10 years, Washington has spent over $5B on homelessness and housing programs. And every year, the spending continues to go up and up. The results? Not great. The Seattle Times reported that in 2023, Washington’s homeless count hit a record high, “The number of people living homeless in Washington rose by 2,825 people,” a startlingly 11% increase from the previous year. In 2023, there were 28,036 people experiencing homelessness in Washington. Ten years prior in 2013, there were 17,760. 

In 2023, Brandi Kruse, the host of Un[divided] broke that the estimated cost for the state to exit someone out of homelessness was over a half million dollars. And that was a generous estimate. 

Despite these failures, Inslee has refused to pivot or change course. His only solution seems to be throwing more money at the problem. This pattern of reckless spending, devoid of all accountability, has left taxpayers to foot the bill for policies that have shown no measurable success. 

As citizens, we decide who sits in the Governor’s office, and that decision directly affects all of our tax burden. Washington’s budget process puts the governor in a central role in state spending. State agencies submit their funding requests to him, and he prepares the proposed budget that will be debated by the legislature. The governor then reviews and signs the final budget into law.

For more than a decade, Inslee has been the captain of our spending ship, and if the next governor doesn’t reverse from the coarse Inslee set, this ship will continue to take on water. Whoever becomes governor in January will face a clear choice: continue Inslee’s legacy of unchecked spending, or chart a new course that prioritizes fiscal responsibility and offers relief to the hardworking families of Washington.