WA governor calls U.S. House Medicaid cuts ‘dire,’ vows to fight

Gov. Bob Ferguson has proposed continuing to intercept the child support payments of low-income families as a way to help balance Washington’s estimated $12 billion budget deficit. 

For decades, Washington has punished poor parents, primarily mothers, who access welfare benefits by garnishing their child support payments. A Cascade PBS investigation last year found that Washington took more than $41 million in 2022 from some of the state’s poorest families.

A bipartisan bill that passed by a near-unanimous vote last year required the Department of Social and Health Services to significantly curb the controversial practice by 2026. But in his recent budget proposal, Ferguson seeks to push back the change an additional three and a half years, which he projected would save $13.7 million over the next biennium.

State Rep. Travis Couture, R-Shelton, who sponsored last year’s bipartisan bill, said raising taxes on poor families is the wrong way to balance the budget and he intends to offer alternative cuts if Democrats take up the governor’s proposal.

“There’s a lot of different line items we can save in our budget that don’t harm poor people,” Couture said. “The only thing we’re delaying here is lifting people out of poverty.”

Ferguson has not ruled out tax increases to address the state’s budget shortfall, but has said he will prioritize cutting spending and put forward $4 billion in cuts.

“Given our budget situation, we very carefully examined proposed or adopted spending not yet implemented,” Governor’s Office spokesperson Brionna Aho wrote in an email response. “Delaying implementation does not take away a current benefit from Washingtonians.”

Democrats are expected to release their budget proposals in the coming weeks. They may decide not to take up Ferguson’s suggestion.

Garnishing child support has a long history but has fallen out of favor in recent years. More than half of U.S. states have begun moving away from the longstanding practice, which is legal and dates at least to the 1970s.

Washington legislators have repeatedly dipped into child support as a revenue source over the years, most recently in 2011. In 2021, a bill sponsored by Sen. Manka Dhingra, D-Redmond, redirected a small portion of payments back to families. 

As a Cascade PBS news reader, you may have questions about the recent headlines regarding public media, from threats to federal funding to the closing of PBS national’s DEI office. We want to address these issues, how they impact this crucial public service, and share what you can do to protect the future of public media. 

The majority of Cascade PBS funding comes from the community – giving from individuals like you, grants from foundations and local underwriting. Cascade PBS also receives a grant from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB), for which funding is currently at risk in Congress. On average, our CPB grant represents about 10% of our annual operating budget. 

Cascade PBS remains committed to the principles of diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging. This work is at the heart of what we do to serve all members of our community and team. More information on our commitment to this work can be found on our website. 

PBS stations are nonprofit organizations, owned locally by the communities they serve. They are individually managed and foster deep community connections through local reporting, events and programs. Each year Cascade PBS provides: 

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You can read more about the impact of the Cascade PBS newsroom in our 2024 Impact Report, and our 2024 Investigations Impact Report, and about the impact of Cascade PBS more broadly in our 2024 Annual Report.

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Seattle Schools Superintendent Dr. Brent Jones announced Monday that he is resigning from his position effective Sept. 3, 2025.

In a video statement posted to the Seattle Public Schools website, Jones said he is leaving to spend more time with his family. The Seattle Times reported that Jones confirmed that he will move to California, where his wife Dr. Janine Jones was appointed vice chancellor for graduate affairs at the University of California at Santa Barbara earlier this month.

The district intends to announce its plans for the superintendent search process in the coming weeks.

Jones has headed the state’s largest school district since 2021, when he was appointed on an interim basis after the resignation of Superintendent Denise Juneau. The school hired Jones for the permanent position in March 2022.

Jones cited the district’s successes at academic recovery, equity and inclusion, expanding student support services, and strengthening community partnership during his tenure at Seattle Public Schools. He also oversaw challenges, such as a withdrawn plan to close schools due to tightening budgets, and a teacher’s strike in 2022.

Before taking on the top job at Seattle Public Schools, Jones had several previous positions at Seattle Public Schools, including chief equity, partnerships, and engagement officer. Additionally, he held posts at the Kent School District and King County Metro Transit.

The City of Cle Elum and a housing developer have agreed to enter mediation to settle on an installment plan for the city to pay a $22.3 million judgment, avoiding municipal bankruptcy.  

The city, population of about 2,200, is on the hook for $22.3 million — five times its annual general-fund budget — after an arbitrator ruled in November in favor of housing developer Sean Northrop and his LLC, City Heights Holdings, over the provisions of a 2011 development agreement regarding Ederra, a new community of 1,000 houses. The arbitrator came to the $22.3 million figure based on the delays caused by the city not executing the agreement as written.  

In January the Cle Elum City Council voted to look into municipal bankruptcy, stating there was no other option. Municipal bankruptcy in Washington is rare — North Bonneville is the first and only city to pursue this option when it filed in 1991.  

Cle Elum Mayor Matthew Lundh said in a news release he was glad City Heights Holdings was willing to enter mediation to work toward a “realistic and sustainable resolution.”  

“A settlement that balances the City’s financial realities with its obligations is the only viable path forward — without it, Chapter 9 bankruptcy remains our only alternative,” Lundh said in the news release. 

The city agreed to make a $50,000 payment to City Heights Holdings to enter mediation, which will be applied toward the cash judgment. Mediation starts March 24. 

A Richland contractor and its owner will pay $1.1 million and serve one year of probation after pleading guilty to federal charges of COVID-19 economic relief loan fraud.

BNL Technical Services and its Tennessee owner, Wilson Pershing Stevenson III, obtained over $493,000 from the Paycheck Protection Program, meant to help struggling businesses retain employees during the pandemic. The company employed subcontractors at the Hanford nuclear site, but those workers continued to receive payment from the Department of Energy throughout the pandemic, even when they stayed at home, according to prosecutors.

Stevenson used the money to pay off personal debts, court records show. He then obtained loan forgiveness by falsely claiming he paid staff salaries with it.  

Federal prosecutors in Eastern Washington launched a COVID-19 fraud “strike force” in 2022 and have continued to indict businesses for abusing generous pandemic-era aid programs. But the scale of theft far surpasses what prosecutors are able to charge, as Cascade PBS reported in 2023. The government lost more than $200 billion to fraud during the pandemic, according to an estimate from the Small Business Administration’s Office of the Inspector General.

Another Hanford site contractor, HPM Corporation, paid nearly $3 million after admitting to bilking PPP loan funds in 2022.

This article was originally published by the Washington State Standard.

The U.S. Education Department on Monday warned 60 colleges and universities they could face repercussions if they fail “to protect Jewish students on campus.”

In a statement announcing letters to schools across the country, the department did not detail what consequences the schools could face, but the letters came less than a week after the administration announced that it would be canceling roughly $400 million in federal grants and contracts to Columbia University over “the school’s continued inaction in the face of persistent harassment of Jewish students.”

President Donald Trump and his administration have focused on curbing antisemitism on college campuses after a series of campus protests erupted last year in the wake of Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel and Israel’s counteroffensive.

Immigration authorities over the weekend arrested and detained a former Columbia graduate student who helped organize campus protests last year against Israel’s war in Gaza. The student, Mahmoud Khalil, is a lawful permanent resident and was not accused of immigration violations. Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio conflated Khalil’s protests of the war in Gaza with support for Hamas to rationalize the arrest.

Columbia University is listed as one of the schools that received the letter warning they could be in violation of Title VI, which bars discrimination on the basis of race, color and national origin in institutions receiving federal funding.

“The Department is deeply disappointed that Jewish students studying on elite U.S. campuses continue to fear for their safety amid the relentless antisemitic eruptions that have severely disrupted campus life for more than a year. University leaders must do better,” Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said in a statement Monday.

“U.S. colleges and universities benefit from enormous public investments funded by U.S. taxpayers. That support is a privilege and it is contingent on scrupulous adherence to federal antidiscrimination laws,” said McMahon, who was confirmed by the U.S. Senate and sworn in last week.

The letters came after a Trump executive order in late January that focused on “additional measures to combat anti-semitism.”

Pursuant to that order, the administration announced in early February the creation of a multi-agency task force to “combat anti-semitism” whose first priority would be “to root out anti-Semitic harassment in schools and on college campuses.”

Three universities and one college in Washington were among the higher education institutions that received the Department of Education warning: Eastern Washington University, Pacific Lutheran University, the University of Washington and Whitman College.

The Washington State Standard originally published a longer version of this article on March 10, 2025.

Seattle Mayor Bruce Harrell is asking Seattleites to renew the city’s democracy voucher program — a first-of-its-kind public campaign-financing system that gives voters money to donate to local political candidates. 

Seattle voters first approved the program in 2015 through a citizen initiative that created a 10-year property tax levy to fund it, passing 63% to 37%. At a news conference Monday, Harrell said the democracy voucher program has been a success and called for it to be renewed for another 10 years. The property tax renewal he’s proposing would appear on the August ballot and cost the median Seattle homeowner about $12.20 a year — generating around $45 million over the next decade, Harrell said. The expiring levy was for $30 million over a decade at the estimated cost of $8 a year for the median homeowner. 

“Renewing this program shows Seattle’s commitment to ensuring that all voices — regardless of income or background — can help shape the future of our city,” Harrell said. 

Seattle voters receive four $25 democracy vouchers in the mail during elections. They can choose to give some or all of the money to the local candidate or candidates of their choosing. 

More than 106,000 residents have used democracy vouchers to contribute more than $10 million to local candidates since the program started. Many vouchers go unused, and on Monday, Harrell said more work is needed to improve return rates and educate people about the program. A study from researchers at Stony Brook and Georgetown University found that participation among the voting-age population declined from 7.59% in the 2021 election to 4.72% in 2023. 

Candidates who want to receive vouchers have to agree to certain restrictions, including a $350 limit on contributions from individual donors and a combined campaign spending limit of about $225,000 for City Council district candidates and $900,000 for mayoral candidates. 

Candidates in the races for Seattle mayor, city attorney and three City Council seats are eligible for democracy vouchers this year. Between 2017 and 2024, 76% of candidates who appeared on the primary election ballot and 89% of candidates on the general election ballot participated in the program. 

Harrell and other supporters said the program makes elections more accessible and inclusive by giving voters of all income levels a chance to directly support candidates. 

“One of the primary benefits of the democracy vouchers program has been its ability to empower more individuals to participate in elections,” Cinthia Illan-Vazquez, executive director of Washington Bus, said on Monday. 

Illan-Vazquez spoke at Monday’s press conference alongside other members of People Powered Elections Washington, a coalition of community and political groups that advocated for the initial 2015 democracy voucher initiative, and is now pushing for its renewal. 

Research by Dr. Jennifer Heerwig, a sociology professor at Stony Brook, found that democracy vouchers have helped create a more diverse group of donors and candidates in Seattle. 

Hannah Lindell-Smith, the coalition coordinator for People Powered Elections, said community groups have expressed interest in eventually creating a statewide democracy voucher program. Voters across Washington would get vouchers in the mail, and candidates for state government positions would be eligible to receive them. 

“There is definitely a lot of hope for expanding the program and making it something that more people can participate in,” Hannah said. “It would be a totally new thing, but it was a totally new thing [in Seattle] 10 years ago, and here we are.” 

The proposed levy renewal will now go to the Seattle City Council for consideration.

Washington Attorney General Nick Brown sued the Adams County Sheriff’s Office on Monday, alleging it broke state law by aiding the federal government in immigration enforcement. 

Brown argues the county is violating a 2019 state law called the “Keep Washington Working Act,” which prohibits local law enforcement from aiding the federal government in arresting or deporting undocumented immigrants. That includes asking someone about their immigration status unless it is relevant to the investigation and arresting someone solely because of their immigration status. 

According to the lawsuit, Adams County has held people in custody based only on their immigration status, helping federal immigration agents question people in custody and routinely sharing residents’ confidential personal information.  

“Washington has the right and the responsibility to decide for itself how to use its own resources to keep residents safe and the economy strong,” Brown wrote in the lawsuit.  

Brown argues that Washington’s law protects undocumented people who may be reluctant to call police to report crimes for fear that they could be deported. 

His lawsuit is the second in recent months against the county over its failure to follow this state law.  

Brown alleges that Adams County has consistently violated the law since 2022 but has been working with the state in recent years on a good-faith settlement. 

But after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year, those talks stopped, according to Brown. 

The lawsuit, filed in Spokane County Superior Court, is the latest legal battle between Brown and the actions of the Trump administration. 

Adams County recently hired lawyers from America First Legal, an organization founded by Trump aide Stephen Miller.  

In a press release last month, the organization claimed Washington’s 2019 law was “harmful, dangerous and illegal.”  

“Our nation’s immigration laws reflect the democratic will of the people, and it is outrageous that the State of Washington has been working to subvert it while at the same time facilitating the invasion of our country,” James Rogers, America First Legal senior counsel, said in a statement.

As the Trump administration pushes to dramatically downsize the federal government, new state data released this week show a big uptick in federal workers applying for unemployment benefits in Washington. 

As of March 5, 952 federal employees have filed unemployment claims with Washington’s Employment Security Department this year — about double the number of claims from the same time period last year, which saw 472 claims. 

Some of the claims were filed before President Donald Trump’s inauguration, but the majority came after he took office and authorized billionaire Elon Musk and the new Department of Government Efficiency to pursue a large-scale slashing of the federal workforce. Most of the layoffs so far have been targeted at recently hired or promoted federal workers in their probationary period. 

The two federal departments with the most unemployment claims in Washington are the U.S. Department of Agriculture, with 190 federal workers filing claims this year, and the Department of the Interior, with 116 claims. Those two departments house the U.S. Forest Service and the National Park Service, which have both seen significant cuts. 

Other affected departments include the Department of the Treasury, with 93 claims; the Postal Service, with 65 claims; the Department of Veterans Affairs, with 64 claims; the Department of Energy, with 49 claims; and the Department of the Navy, with 45 claims. 

There are about 76,000 total federal employees in Washington, according to the latest quarterly data. The unemployment figures released this week reflect only people who have submitted claims for benefits with the state, so the total number of federal workers in Washington affected by Trump’s layoffs could be higher. 

King County is the county with the most impacted federal workers, with 207 claims filed this year. Pierce County had 82 claims and Kitsap had 59. 

In a news release, employment security commissioner Cami Feek said her department is “monitoring the status of the federal situation and actively working to support federal workers every day.” 

The new administration’s push to slash the federal workforce is facing legal challenges. This week, Washington joined a lawsuit challenging the administration’s order to fire workers in their probationary periods. A federal judge issued a temporary restraining order in the case last week and ordered the U.S. Office of Personnel Management to rescind orders firing employees at several federal agencies. 

In a statement, state Attorney General Nick Brown described Trump’s aggressive downsizing of the federal workforce as an “all-out assault on public service.” He said the state believes at least 1,000 federal workers in Washington have lost their jobs as a result of the president’s actions. 

“These firings don’t save the public a dime, but they do make government less responsive, particularly in the communities across the nation where these employees live and serve,” Brown said. 

In Washington, federal workers and their supporters have staged a number of protests against the firings in recent weeks. 

Information about applying for unemployment benefits as a federal employee can be found on the Employment Security Department’s website. The department is encouraging federal employees seeking new jobs to visit the state’s WorkSource offices for resources.

The state Department of Labor & Industries will begin raising penalty amounts annually, based on inflation, in an effort to make fines for health and safety violations a more effective deterrent.

Health and safety fines in Washington state have lagged behind the national average since 2019. The most recent data from the U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration show the state’s fines for serious violations fell to a little over half of the national average in 2023. 

L&I spokesperson Matt Ross noted the agency started discussing raising base penalties in 2022. 

“The timing was based on the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the fact that Washington conducts a significantly higher number of inspections than most other states, which is one factor balancing out the need for higher penalties to be an effective deterrent,” Ross wrote in an email. 

L & I implemented the new rates on Feb. 17. Penalties imposed in response to inspection conducted after that date will see fines increased by 2%. Starting next year, fines will grow based on the inflation rate. 

Starting last month, base penalties for the highest severity violations started at $7,140. The lowest severity violation rates begin at $1,020. 

Base penalties are determined by the severity and probability of any potential injury that could have resulted from the violation of the health or safety rule. L&I also adjusts fines based on the size of the company and past safety history.

A 2024 Cascade PBS investigation found that state officials often reduced penalty amounts upon appeal, later lowering a third of safety fines from inspections conducted between 2017 and 2021. 

Under the new penalty system, fines may also rise an additional 2% if the amount is not within 25% of the national penalty average. With average serious fines nearly half of the national average, many would likely qualify for that extra increase.  

Ross stated that L&I last raised its penalty rates in 2018 to meet the federal requirements. 

A spokesperson for the Association of Washington Businesses declined to comment on the new fines, saying it was an issue they were aware of but had not been involved in.

Sarah Tucker, a spokesperson for the Washington State Labor Council, said the group appreciated the new fine structure that increased fines based on inflation, but questioned if the amounts were high enough to be a deterrent. 

“We appreciate adopting a structure to ensure that the dissuasive power of penalties will keep up, at least in part, with the economy,” Tucker wrote in an email. “But whether these penalties are sufficient to effectively drive employers toward safer practices is an open question.”