{"id":131,"date":"2025-02-28T22:08:11","date_gmt":"2025-02-28T22:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/?p=131"},"modified":"2025-04-16T20:30:30","modified_gmt":"2025-04-16T20:30:30","slug":"governor-ferguson-recommends-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/2025\/02\/28\/governor-ferguson-recommends-cuts\/","title":{"rendered":"Governor Ferguson Recommends Cuts\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

February 28, 2025\u2014As we near the halfway point of the 2025 legislative session, the reality of the state\u2019s massive budget predicament has become clearer to policy makers. At a February 27 press conference, Governor Bob Ferguson laid out more details on his proposals<\/a> for cuts to state agencies and four-year public higher education.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Evergreen as for the five other public four-year colleges\/universities, the governor is proposing a 3% cut in overall operating budgets. (State agencies are expected to take a 6% cut.) In addition to this, Governor Ferguson proposes state employees take an unpaid furlough day each month.  Nevertheless, he also recommends the state adhere to collective bargaining agreements reached in fall 2024, which would provide a 5% wage increase to represented workers over the next two years.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Funding for Evergreen\u2019s Shelton Promise, IT modernization and implementation of collective bargaining agreements remain in the governor\u2019s recommended budget for the college. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ultimately, it will be up to the legislature to consider the governor’s proposals, debate their own ideas and finally pass the budget by April 27.  House and Senate leadership have said publicly they 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In conversations with state budget writers, Evergreen President John Carmichael and Government Relations Director Sandy Kaiser are hearing that ideas are on the table for increasing revenue for higher education. They include permitting tuition increases and removing a cap on corporate contributions to the Workforce Education Investment Account, which funds the Washington Grant student scholarship program. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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, which would have abolished Evergreen in 2026 in favor of a health-sciences branch campus of the University of Washington, will not get a vote.<\/strong> In a February 27 meeting with Senate Minority Leader John Braun (R-Centralia), the bill\u2019s sponsor, we updated him on Evergreen\u2019s growing enrollment and strength in STEM studies. We talked about the possibility of expanding health-sciences study at Evergreen.    <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Senate Minority Leader John Braun (R-Centralia) with Evergreen President John Carmichael and Government Relations Director Sandy Kaiser at the Senate Rostrum<\/em> <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In meetings over the last two weeks with Senate higher education Vice-Chair Drew Hansen (D-Bremerton), Senate Ways and Means Vice-Chair Derek Stanford (D-Bothell), Office of Financial Management Director K.D. Chapman-See, Governor Ferguson\u2019s policy advisors Heather Hudson and Patricia Loera, Senator Adrian Cortes (D-Battle Ground), Senator Mark Schoesler (R-Ritzville), Rep. Steve Bergquist (D-Renton), House Appropriations Vice-Chair Nicole Macri (D-Seattle), Rep. Mari Leavitt (D-University Place) and House Appropriations Ranking Member Travis Couture (R-Allyn), we are making a strong case for Evergreen\u2019s students, staff and faculty.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The next state revenue forecast will be issued March 20, and soon after the first fully formed budget proposals will emerge in the House and Senate budget committees.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

February 28, 2025\u2014As we near the halfway point of the 2025 legislative session, the reality of the state\u2019s massive budget predicament has become clearer to policy makers. At a February 27 press conference, Governor Bob Ferguson laid out more details… Continue Reading →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5116,"featured_media":132,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5116"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=131"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":179,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/131\/revisions\/179"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.evergreen.edu\/evergreenleg\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}