Governor Ferguson Gets Specific About Cuts
March 1, 2025—As we near the halfway point of the 2025 legislative session, the reality of the state’s massive budget shortfall is clear to policy makers. On February 27, Governor Bob Ferguson laid out more details on his proposals for cuts to state agencies and four-year public higher education.
PROPOSED CUTS For Evergreen: The governor is proposing a 3% cut in overall operating budgets for Evergreen and Washington’s other 4-year universities and colleges. (State agencies are expected to take a 6% cut.) Also, Governor Ferguson proposes state employees take one unpaid furlough day each month. Nevertheless, he wants to keep collective bargaining agreements reached in fall 2024, which would provide a 5% wage increase to represented workers over the next two years.
SAVED for Evergreen in Governor’s Budget: These priorities are still in the governor’s budget. They will encourage more students to attend Evergreen and keep our campus open with talented faculty.
- Funding for Evergreen’s Shelton Promise,
- IT modernization
- Collective bargaining agreements
BAD BILL DIES! Meanwhile, the policy and fiscal cutoff dates have come and gone, which means bills that did not pass out of their committees are essentially dead for this session. That means Senate Bill 5424 died and will not get a vote. That bill proposed to abolish Evergreen in 2026 in favor of a health-sciences branch campus of the University of Washington. On February 27, Evergreen leaders met with the sponsor of SB 5424, Senate Minority Leader John Braun (D-Centralia). They showed Evergreen’s growing enrollment numbers and strength in STEM studies. They also talked about the possibility of expanding health-sciences study at Evergreen while still leaving the core mission and vision of Evergreen intact.
NEXT STEPS to Final Budget: House and Senate leadership believe the $12 billion deficit can best be managed through a combination of new revenue (taxes) and budget cuts. The governor has so far declined to say whether he thinks new taxes are needed.
In conversations with state budget writers, new possibilities of increasing revenue for higher education have surfaced. This includes tuition increases and removing a cap on corporate contributions to the Workforce Education Investment Account, which funds the Washington Grant student scholarship program.
To say the least, Evergreen leaders have been busy over the past two weeks! Evergreen’s President Carmichael and Government Relations Director Sandy Kaiser made the case for Evergreen’s students, staff and faculty in meetings all over the Hill in Olympia. High on the meeting list were members of Governor Ferguson’s budget and policy staff and elected officials.
ARE THESE FOLKS REPRESENTING YOU IN OLYMPIA? Carmichael and Kaiser met with Senators and Representatives to talk about Evergreen….are they your elected officials? If so, let us know!
- Senate Higher Education Vice-Chair Drew Hansen (D-Bremerton)
- Senate Ways and Means Vice-Chair Derek Stanford (D-Bothell)
- Senator Adrian Cortes, (D-Battle Ground)
- Senator Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville)
- Steve Bergquist (D-Renton)
- Nicole Macri (D-Seattle) -- House Appropriations Vice-Chair
- Mari Leavitt (D-University Place)
- Travis Couture (R-Allyn) -- House Appropriations Ranking Member
March 20: The next state revenue forecast will be issued March 20. Soon after, the first fully formed budget proposals will emerge in the House and Senate budget committees. Stay tuned for your next Evergreen Advocates News Update!