Voices in Touch Newsletter: Edition 3
Stay up to date on policy and advocacy topics affecting your work in Olympia, King County, and Seattle.
The fight to protect vital services like early childhood education and childcare subsidies takes center stage in the upcoming legislative session.
The Rundown
In the face of a projected 10–12-billion-dollar budget shortfall over the next 4 years, Governor Jay Inslee released his final budget proposal aiming to address this concern and protect essential services like ECEAP in Washington State.
Governor Inslee proposed to balance this budget by imposing a 1% tax on wealth exceeding 100 million dollars. This would generate approximately $10 billion from around 3,400 of Washington State’s wealthiest individuals. In addition, Governor Inslee proposed an increase in the Business and Occupation tax for businesses in the “services or other activities” category which is projected to raise another 2.6 billion. Both measures are designed to prevent any harm to low-income, working-class Washingtonians and vital services such as education, mental health services and public safety.
In alignment with Governor Jay Inslee’s budget proposal, October of 2024, the Department of Children, Youth and Families announced their 2025 Legislative Proposal that contained packages related to ECEAP and Home visiting services. Govenor Inslee called on agencies in Washington to help come up with solutions to address this budget deficit. One key point of DCYF proposal is to maintain childcare subsidy base rates at the 85th percentile which in end will help more families have access to childcare services. These packages are crucial to understanding the proposed budget of ECEAP funding, slots, requirements and eligibility for early childcare in Washington state.
As the 2025 legislative session prepares to begin on January 13th,these proposals will be central to the discussions on how to best address the budget shortfall and balancing the deficit. The new Governor-elect Bob Ferguson will be sworn into office on January 15th, 2025, and present his own proposal soon after. This is followed by the state legislature reviewing both proposals before finalizing their own budget, which is expected to be completed by the end of the session in April.