The honeymoon period is long over and the verdict is in: Washington Gov. Bob Ferguson is, without question, the most disappointing governor in our state’s recent history.
No, this isn’t about blind politics. It isn’t partisan frustration from a strictly conservative point of view. It is simply the most accurate summation of his time in the governor’s mansion, one that has been marked by a remarkable lack of transparency, honesty and any semblance of a functional backbone.
Ferguson was once the attorney general who ventured into areas like Lewis County — where he has been and remains overwhelmingly unpopular — to provide insight on his work and meet with constituents regardless of their political inclinations. He often showed up at The Chronicle, local Rotary clubs and other events where the civic-minded gather.
He is now the governor who dodges the media, makes easily disprovable and embarrassing statements that suffer from no relation with reality, and continues the state on a completely unsustainable path of overspending and maximum taxation that has supercharged a mass migration away from the once great Evergreen State.
Let’s start with the most recent transgressions and work our way back.
Ferguson recently signed off on a $80 billion state budget. For scale, that’s well over double where the budget stood in 2012 at $30 billion. It represents a shocking and grotesque appetite for the hard-earned money of the people of Washington, one that has not come with commensurate upgrades on services or efficiency.
This only one session after the largest tax increase in state history.
Yet, Ferguson still managed to make an attempt at reigning in spending — in the form of vetoes for a $300,000 reading program and a $500,000 organized retail crime enforcement program.
As The Washington State Standard reported, that’s roughly .001% of the budget.
Per The Standard: Ferguson told reporters after signing the budget that no cut or veto is easy to make. “At the same time, we’ve got a budget to balance,” he said.
Give me a damn break.
When the state budget calls for a chainsaw, Ferguson shows up with miniature scalpel and a hilarious claim that he is serious about good budgeting.
It’s impossible to be a failure with no expectations to begin with, and Ferguson set those right out of the gate.
“Let me be clear,” he said at his inaugural address in 2025. “I’m not here to defend government. I’m here to reform it.”
That was either a lie or the front-end of an absolute capitulation.
Ferguson isn’t here to reform anything. He’s here to grow it. He’s here to continue it. And if he ever had any intention of setting the state on a more hopeful and prosperous path, he abandoned it the moment he was confronted by the whims of the left-wing lawmakers who have driven our state into a financial canyon.
Jay Inslee mostly said what he meant and did what he said. That was angering and frustrating for conservative residents of this state who disagreed with him deeply, but at least it was clear and understood.
Ferguson wants to blame Inslee — indirectly, of course — for the financial condition of the state while accelerating the very politics and policies that got us here.
Through action and inaction, Ferguson has raided the state’s rainy day funds, slashed millions of dollars in funding for education and child care, and otherwise proven he has all the financial acumen of a child playing house.
When will Democrats stop pretending to be shocked — SHOCKED! — when every legislative session now begins with a billion-dollar shortfall because, rather than being good stewards of our money, they continue to spend like drunk sailors and rely on nakedly flimsy budget gimmicks? All while blaming the big, scary man in the White House for all their problems.
Ferguson isn’t just in on the con. He’s driving it. With his approval of an illegal income tax — one that has been rejected by voters 10 times and is outlawed by the state constitution — he has cemented his legacy as a man who not only can’t be trusted — he can’t even be taken seriously. Not by Republicans. Not by Democrats. Not by anyone who isn’t also relentlessly licking their finger, holding it in the air and determining which way the political winds are moving to decide on their next move.
The Legislature lied to the people two years ago, adopting an initiative that banned Washington from taxing “any individual person on any form of personal income.” As a lead Democrat later said, it was a “pie crust promise. Easily made. Easily broken.”
And worse, they refused to even write the legislation in a way that would prevent the tax from falling on all of us in the years ahead as Democrats pump the well dry and demand more from our paychecks. They even prevented the people from bringing a referendum by inserting an emergency clause on a tax that won’t be collected for two years, IF it holds up in court.
I don’t criticize Ferguson because I hate his party. I don’t criticize him because of his progressive policies. I criticize him because, more than any occupant of the governor’s office in recent memory, he is too dishonest, cowardly and impotent to stand up for the people of Washington.
He’s not here to reform an out-of-control state government. He is here to defend it. At our expense.
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Chad Taylor is publisher and co-owner of The Chronicle. He can be reached at chad@chronline.com.
