Save Washington’s public services

Washington Federation of State Employees urges support for a Washington for all, not just the rich

The following is from WFSE/AFSCME Council 28:

OLYMPIA, WA ( March 3, 2025) — Governor Ferguson’s all-cuts proposals to balance Washington’s budget shortfall will compound rather than combat the chaos and suffering coming from DOGE and Musk in D.C. If ever there was a time to address Washington State’s upside-down tax code – the second most unfair tax system in the country – it is now.

Send a letter here or text STAND to 237-263.

Across the country and right here in Washington, anti-worker billionaires are attacking public services to give themselves tax breaks and privatize the services we all depend on.

In Washington, D.C., the $4.5 trillion tax handout for the rich being cued by Congress will slash $2 trillion from vital programs that working families, children, seniors and people with disabilities rely on.

The impacts will hit incredibly hard in Washington state.

Over 20,000 WFSE members’ jobs are funded by federal dollars in some capacity. Countless Washingtonians will lose access to vital services they’re receiving right now if these cuts go through.

Washington’s veterans will be especially impacted.

Our members at the Washington State Department of Veterans Affairs, who provide 24/7 care for aging veterans, are 100% funded by federal dollars.

And we’re already contending with a projected $12 billion state budget deficit that exists in large part because our tax code is inefficient and relies disproportionately on working families.

Lobbyists for the super-rich and largest corporations are in Olympia demanding that our elected officials make drastic cuts to the services we all depend on rather than ask them to start contributing.

We can’t cut our way out of this mess, but we can begin addressing the structural budget deficit that got us here by asking the super-rich to begin contributing like the rest of us.

That’s why Governor Ferguson’s all-cuts proposal to address the budget shortfall is so devastating. It will compound rather than combat the suffering coming from DOGE and Musk.

If we don’t more evenly spread the responsibility for funding vital state services now, we’ll be paying for these cuts for generations. And in the much closer reality, we’ll have no chance at backfilling lost federal funding.

Now is the time to defend and celebrate public services, and to remind our elected officials that we care about them. 

Tell your elected officials to stand up for our state’s values and create a #WashingtonForAll, not just the rich.