Last week, Gov. Bob Ferguson took to social media to celebrate two major achievements.
First, the state Department of Health now processes requests to change gender designations on birth certificates in just three business days — down from up to 10 months.
Second, he signed legislation ensuring Washingtonians can update sex designations on state IDs and birth certificates “without fear of violating their privacy.”
The governor framed this as proof that “Washington state is committed to protecting the rights of transgender and gender diverse people.”
Fair enough.
But it raises an uncomfortable question: If the state government can clear a backlog of hundreds of requests and deliver results in three days when it chooses to, why can’t it move anywhere near that quickly on the things that affect the daily lives and economic futures of all Washingtonians?
Try getting a building permit.
According to the Building Industry Association of Washington, the statewide average time to approve a building permit is 6.5 months.
That delay alone adds more than $25,000-$31,000 in holding costs per home — money that gets passed on to buyers or simply kills projects. In King County and other Puget Sound jurisdictions, the wait for residential permits routinely stretches 12-24 months.
State law is supposed to require decisions within 120 days, yet many jurisdictions blow right past that deadline with little consequence.
The human cost is enormous. Washington faces a housing shortage of roughly 270,000 units. Every unnecessary month of delay makes homes more expensive, pushes families into overcrowded conditions or out of state entirely, and fuels homelessness.
Young people, working families and first-time buyers are priced out while developers sit on capital, paying interest and watching inflation erode their margins.
Meanwhile, the same bureaucracy that can’t process a straightforward single-family home permit in under half a year somehow found the staff, the weekend overtime, and the urgency to turn around gender-marker paperwork in 72 hours.
This isn’t about the merits of gender identity. It’s about competence and priorities. Government has limited time, limited staff and limited taxpayer dollars.
When it chooses to supercharge one narrow administrative process while letting the core machinery of housing, infrastructure and economic development grind along at a glacial pace, it sends a clear message about what matters most to Olympia.
We’ve seen this pattern before. Environmental reviews, design standards and endless public comment periods are weaponized to slow housing in the name of “process.”
Yet when the governor wants fast results in a politically favored area, the bureaucracy suddenly discovers efficiency. A team of more than a dozen people even worked a weekend to clear the gender-change backlog. Imagine if that same urgency were applied to the permitting offices in Seattle, Tacoma, or Spokane.
Washingtonians are tired of the hypocrisy.
We’re told we must accept sky-high housing costs, traffic congestion and regulatory red tape as the price of living in a “progressive” state. Then the governor brags about three-day service for one category of document changes while the rest of us wait years just to build or renovate.
It’s time for Olympia to apply the same focus and urgency to the fundamentals: housing, infrastructure and economic opportunity. Streamline permitting the way the Health Department streamlined gender changes. Enforce the 120-day rule with real consequences. Cut the redundant reviews that add cost but deliver little public benefit.
Until then, Gov. Ferguson’s victory lap on birth certificates will stand as a perfect symbol of a state that has its priorities exactly backwards.
Devin Page
Packwood
