Cuts to child care are part of $80B WA budget deal. ‘This was a hard one.’
It was another session full of difficult budget decisions, Washington state lawmakers said Wednesday.
House and Senate budget writers have unveiled a supplemental operating budget deal that relies on a hotly debated income tax on millionaires and makes cuts to education and child care.
Democrats said much of their challenge centered on how to backfill lost dollars due to H.R. 1, the federal tax and spending package signed into law last summer that slashes funding for social safety-net services including food benefits and health care.
Sen. June Robinson, an Everett Democrat who chairs the Senate Ways & Means Committee, acknowledged during Wednesday’s conference committee meeting that many people will be “disappointed by this budget.”
Lawmakers did their best with available resources to serve Washingtonians, she said.
“This was a hard one,” Robinson said.
Rep. Travis Couture, the House Republican budget lead, told McClatchy after the meeting that the budget will hit Washingtonians in multiple ways.
The Allyn Republican cited last year’s record-high tax increases and said he worries the proposed income tax will lead to capital flight, eliminating job opportunities for his constituents.
“And so I view it as a continuation of what was already harmful last session,” he said.
For K-12 education, lawmakers accounted for $110.2 million in net savings over the four-year period, largely pulled from the Transition to Kindergarten program. They’re also counting on reductions to the Working Connections Child Care program.
Both the House and Senate released their respective budget ideas late last month. The new agreement between the two chambers over the 2025-27 biennium would appropriate $80.2 billion and assumes an $880 million transfer from the rainy day fund for general use. In fiscal year 2029, $880 million would then return to that rainy day fund using dollars from a police and firefighter pension surplus holding account.
Revenue from Senate Bill 6346, dubbed the “millionaires tax” by supporters, wouldn’t pour in until 2029. The bill is estimated to net more than $2.2 billion in its first partial year, according to the negotiated budget; when it’s fully up and running projections show it could rake in between $3.5 billion to $4 billion annually.
Contingent on that proposal’s passage, the budget also includes $140 million for free school meals in fiscal year 2029.
Both chambers will still have to pass the supplemental budget before the end of Thursday, the last scheduled day of the 2026 session. After that it will head to Gov. Bob Ferguson’s desk.
The budget also hinges on other revenue not related to the income tax. Those proposals include Senate Bill 6228, which would nix the preferential business and occupation (B&O) tax rate for reselling and warehousing prescription drugs, and SB 6231, ditching tax breaks for data-center operators replacing older server equipment.
The Working Connections Child Care program would see changes to attendance-based provider reimbursements, as well as the elimination of enhanced regional rates for four WCCC regions.
Couture said during the meeting that Washington is grappling with a child-care crisis and ranks as one of the costliest states for that care.
State funding would also go toward nearly 1,200 lawfully present non-citizens who are receiving Medicaid long-term care services but would be stripped of Medicaid coverage because of H.R. 1.
Democratic Rep. Timm Ormsby of Spokane, chair of the House Appropriations Committee, referenced the ramping up in tension between the state and the federal government. He said lawmakers boosted funding for the attorney general’s office “to fight for the values” of Washington.
Sen. Chris Gildon, the Senate’s Republican budget lead, told McClatchy after the meeting that the budget is putting the state on a shaky foundation.
The Puyallup Republican said the deal assumes 2.2% in spending growth. But over the “last number of years,” the state has historically spent 15% more each year, putting Washington functionally in another multi-billion-dollar shortfall, he said.
“It’s phantom savings, is what it is,” Gildon said.
Some organizations were not happy with what they saw of Wednesday’s budget.
Washington Education Association President Larry Delaney said in a statement that because revenue from the income tax is still years away, the state is facing a budget that enacts harmful education cuts on top of the current structural underfunding of kids’ futures.
He said the state should amply fund students’ PK-12 and higher education, but that it’s going the opposite direction.
“The state’s cuts paired with its failure to keep pace with increasing costs is putting our students’ and our state’s future in jeopardy,” Delaney said.
Charter school advocates are also displeased by a lack of $7.5 million in per-pupil enrichment funding, meaning those schools will have no enrichment dollars next school year, according to a news release. They say that lack of funding decreases classroom resources and jeopardizes operations.
Chris Korsmo, executive director of the Washington State Charter Schools Association, said in a statement that students at charter schools are public-school students who want to be invested in.
“It is disheartening that our Legislature has reversed its approach from the past two school years and made this inequity in our public school system worse,” Korsmo said.
Washington Health Benefit Exchange CEO Ingrid Ulrey said in a statement that the exchange was pleased to see resources allocated for the state-funded premium assistance program Cascade Care Savings. Ulrey said more residents will be able to afford the health coverage they need thanks to the “maintenance level of $55 million for plan year 2027.”
House Speaker Laurie Jinkins referred to last month’s rosier-than-expected revenue forecast when speaking with reporters Wednesday.
Lawmakers were “able to move to whichever budget cut less” because of the forecast, which found projected revenue through 2029 had risen more than $1.8 billion from last fall, the Tacoma Democrat said.
“So I think that’s seen as a victory in our caucus, and by me,” she said, adding: “There are still many reductions that remain in the budgets.”
Editor’s note: This article has been updated with additional budget details, comments from lawmakers and reactions from organizations.
This story was originally published March 11, 2026 at 5:07 PM.
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