On Tuesday, the Legislature held a special session to pass 2E2SSB 5536, a drug policy bill that is in response to the 2021 state Supreme Court decision in State v. Blake. (The Court held that the state’s drug possession law was unconstitutional because the state did not have to prove intent in order to convict.) In 2021, the Legislature had passed ESB 5476—a temporary fix that expires July 1, 2023.

Gov. Inslee has already signed 2E2SSB 5536. The Washington State Standard has more on the bill and the special session here.

A version of SB 5536 was assumed in the conference report for the 2023–25 operating budget. That version of SB 5536 appropriated $26.9 million from all funds, including $2.7 million from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO). The version of SB 5536 that was enacted on Tuesday appropriates $62.7 million from all funds, including $37.9 million from the NGFO. Thus, the enacted bill adds $35.2 million in NGFO spending that was not anticipated in the outlook for the conference report.

(The appropriations in the enacted bill include, for example, $9.0 million for public defense, $5.2 million for grants to providers of employment and education services to individuals with substance use disorder, and $5.0 million for law enforcement assisted diversion.)

Altogether, to address the Blake decision, the state has appropriated $1.3 million in 2019–21, $229.5 million in 2021–23, and $178.5 million in 2023–25. Across the three biennia, total appropriations are $409.3 million (including $155.7 million from the NGFO). (The appropriations in the operating budgets include funding for city and county resentencing costs, for legal financial obligation refunds, and for public defense costs, for example.)