State law requires the governor to propose a budget that balances within current resources (RCW 43.88.030(1)). This is called the “current law” budget or the “book 1” budget. Additionally, the governor “may” submit a budget that increases taxes (called the “book 2” budget).

The budget Gov. Inslee proposed in December is his book 2 budget. The current law proposal was posted later with no fanfare. That’s typical—the current law proposals tend not to be preferred by the governor. However, it seems like this current law proposal was developed with even less consideration than usual.

There seems to be broad agreement in the Legislature that the state will need to spend more on COVID-19 response and provide relief for individuals and businesses (through direct funds and tax relief).

Of course, as the Legislature develops its budget, it will have access to the rainy day fund (which is estimated to have about $2 billion at the end of this biennium). The current law budget cannot assume the rainy day fund is tapped, which certainly makes the balancing exercise more difficult. But Gov. Inslee’s current law budget doesn’t even attempt to re-prioritize spending to direct current funds to public health and economic relief.

Additionally, we know there are budget savings that could be made (and that could potentially make room for new COVID-related spending) because the governor’s preferred book 2 budget includes many savings items. For example, Gov. Inslee’s preferred book 2 budget would save $235.5 million from agency efficiencies and staff furloughs. In the book 1 budget, only $102.2 million of these savings are included. There are many other examples of savings that are booked in the preferred budget but oddly left out of the current law budget.

For 2019–21, Gov. Inslee’s preferred budget would appropriate $52.785 billion from funds subject to the outlook (1.7% below the enacted budget). His current law budget would appropriate $52.431 billion (2.4% below the enacted budget).

For 2021–23, Gov. Inslee’s preferred budget would appropriate $57.849 billion (7.7% above the 2019–21 enacted budget). His current law budget would appropriate $55.381 billion (3.1% above the 2019–21 enacted budget).

Ultimately, neither the book 1 nor the book 2 budget will be enacted. The Legislature will work out its own priorities and the final budget will probably look quite different from either of Gov. Inslee’s proposals. Nevertheless, it would have been nice—especially this year—if the governor had attempted a viable budget proposal that didn’t rely on increasing taxes.