By Paula Fillmore Sardinas, President and CEO, FMS Global Strategies ,Founder, Washington Build Back Black Alliance
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded this nation that moral progress is measured not by lofty rhetoric, but by the courage to confront inequity in real time. As Washington State faces a fifteen-billion-dollar budget shortfall, leaders in Olympia must decide whether we will honor Dr. King’s legacy through action or allow communities that have already borne the heaviest burdens to carry the cost once again.
We must be clear. The budget cannot be balanced on the backs of Black Washingtonians.
Black communities did not cause this fiscal crisis. We cannot become its collateral damage. Equity requires intention, accountability, and investment. This begins with codifying the Community Reinvestment Program and making the two hundred-million-dollar funding program permanent. CRP is not a charity program. It is restorative justice. It funds community healing, reentry support, behavioral health, workforce pathways, and stabilization for those most harmed by discriminatory policy and the war on drugs. Allowing CRP to sunset would not be fiscal discipline. It would be a moral failure.
We must also protect the Covenant Homeownership Program from harmful right-wing efforts designed to weaken pathways to homeownership and generational wealth for Black descendants of enslaved people and for families harmed by historic redlining. Housing justice is economic justice. Homeownership remains the single greatest driver of intergenerational stability in this nation. Dr. King understood that civil rights without economic opportunity is an unfinished promise.
Education equity must also remain a priority. Fully funding Ninth Grade Student Success is essential to closing the Black male achievement gap and supporting students who are furthest from opportunity. Ninth grade is the turning point that determines graduation, workforce access, and long-term economic mobility. When we support students at this critical stage, we change outcomes for families and communities across the state.
Food insecurity continues to disproportionately impact Black households. The solutions must be culturally grounded and community informed. That means investing in Black farmers, Black led community-based food distribution programs, and the leaders already working on the ground who understand the neighborhoods they serve.
Finally, we must protect the Black small business ecosystem. The Black business is the heartbeat of the Black community. Any new revenue package must include at least one billion dollars in small business tax relief, with no less than two hundred fifty million dollars dedicated to statewide technical assistance. Thriving small businesses create stability, jobs, and wealth.
Dr. King did not call us to comfort. He called us to courage. Honor the dream through policy. Honor the dream through investment. Honor the dream by protecting the communities that have held this state together for generations.
