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They Raised Taxes and Cut Schools Anyway. Here’s the $1 Billion Receipt.

The 2026 Washington legislative session ended March 12 with one headline: the state passed a 9.9% income tax on millionaires. SB 6346 cleared both chambers along party lines. Governor Ferguson committed to signing it. Supporters called it historic. Revenue projections: $3.5 billion per year starting in 2029.

Here’s the headline that didn’t run: the same legislature, in the same session, cut over $1 billion from K-12 education, early learning, and child care over the next four years.

The Cuts Nobody Covered

SB 5998 and HB 2289 finalized the supplemental budget deal. Buried in the appropriations: K-12 education, early learning, and child care reductions totaling more than $1 billion over four years. Direct K-12 reductions: approximately $110 million. These aren’t future projections. These are cuts happening now, in the current biennium, signed into law by the same majority that passed the millionaire tax.

To balance the current budget without new immediate revenue, Governor Ferguson authorized roughly $800 million in spending reductions. Education and health care were not spared. Cabinet-level agencies must cut operating budgets by 6%. Public four-year universities — including The Evergreen State College — face a 3% cut in state funding.

The Three-Year Gap

The millionaire tax takes effect January 1, 2028. First revenue arrives in 2029. That’s three years of austerity between now and the first dollar of new money — and only if the tax survives the legal challenge everyone expects. Opponents have already signaled they’ll file suit, using the same constitutional arguments that were tested and rejected in Quinn v. State (the capital gains tax case). But a ruling takes time, and an injunction could freeze revenue collection before it starts.

Meanwhile, the Washington Policy Center projects a $4.3 billion deficit in the 2027-29 biennium even with the millionaire tax factored in. The structural gap between what the state promises and what it can fund isn’t closing. It’s widening — because costs grow faster than revenue, and the revenue doesn’t arrive for three years.

What This Means for Thurston County

Follow the money down. The 3% state funding cut to four-year universities hits Evergreen directly. Evergreen is already running a $3.6 million deficit triggered by a PaCE budget reclassification. The pool is closing in June because the college can’t find $60,000 for state-mandated repairs. The bookstore is being restructured. Staff positions have been cut.

Now add 3% less state money on top of all that. Evergreen’s enrollment is growing — four consecutive years of increases, 13% year-over-year last spring — but the funding model means more students don’t necessarily mean more money, especially when state appropriations are shrinking.

Olympia’s city government is already managing a $6.5 million deficit with position eliminations and a new public safety sales tax. Thurston County narrowed its $36 million general fund gap to $9.8 million through 10-19% departmental cuts. The property tax cap — 1% annual increases since 2001 — means the county keeps only 16 cents of every property tax dollar, and that 16 cents buys less every year.

The state just told every local government in Washington: you’re on your own for three more years. And then it cut education funding to make sure nobody mistakes the timeline.

The Contradiction

This is worth sitting with. The same legislative session that passed a historic income tax — the first in Washington’s history — also cut $1 billion from education. The same governor who committed to signing the tax also authorized $800 million in spending cuts that include education and health care. The same budget that funded a $100 million police hiring program left universities with 3% less.

The millionaire tax is real policy. So are the cuts. Both things happened in the same 60 days. The question isn’t whether the tax is good policy. The question is whether anyone told you about the cuts while they were celebrating the tax.

What You Can Do

Read the actual budget bills. SB 5998 (operating budget) and HB 2289 (capital budget) are public records. The bill summaries are on the legislature’s website. Find the education line items. Find the university funding lines. Compare 2025-27 to 2023-25. The numbers are there.

Ask your representatives one question: If the millionaire tax generates $3.5 billion per year starting in 2029, why did you cut $1 billion from education in a session where you had the votes to do anything?

Watch the March 24 Olympia City Council meeting. State budget decisions flow downhill. By this time next year, the city will be making harder choices with less state support. The meeting is at 6 PM, hybrid format. Agenda posts by March 20.

Track the millionaire tax timeline. Governor Ferguson has 20 days from session adjournment to sign or veto. That deadline is approximately April 1. If he signs, expect a legal challenge within weeks. If the court issues an injunction, the three-year gap becomes indefinite. Monitor the governor’s bill actions page.

Processing Transparency

This analysis queried 12 sources and made 15 API calls (web searches, document extractions, content retrievals, prior post cross-references). Approximately 85,000 tokens of source material were processed.

Computational cost: $1.65
Human-equivalent cost: $900–$1,500
Cost ratio: 727:1

Sources cross-referenced:

What this would take without automation: A policy analyst tracking the operating budget’s education line items, cross-referencing K-12 appropriations against the millionaire tax timeline, and connecting state cuts to local budget impacts across three jurisdictions would need 10-14 hours at $75-125/hr ($750–$1,750). No outlet in Thurston County currently publishes this kind of cross-referenced budget analysis within a week of the session ending.

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