The supplemental operating budget passed by the Legislature transfers a net of $1.663 billion from other accounts into the NGFO (funds subject to the outlook). Combined with transfers enacted in 2025, net NGFO transfers for 2025–27 total $2.292 billion.

Aside from the use of rainy day funds, these transfers are made from accounts that are dedicated for specific purposes. The sources of funding for the dedicated accounts include various fees, taxes, and appropriations, for example. [Update: Note that the transfers in this post are made from dedicated accounts to the NGFO for general use. They do not include funding shifts in which a specific program was funded by the NGFO but will now be funded from a dedicated account.]

As I’ve shown, revised appropriations for 2025–27 in the supplemental budget passed by the Legislature exceed ongoing revenues by $4.894 billion. The one-time transfers help to balance the budget.

Despite increasing revenues (due to economic growth and tax increases), the total amount of transfers for 2025–27 rival those in the budgets of the Great Recession—when revenues declined.

Net transfers to the NGFO in 2025–27 include:

• $880.0 million from the budget stabilization account,
• $663.0 million from the public works assistance account,
• $395.0 million in capital gains revenues that would otherwise go to the common school construction account,
• $120.0 million from the state treasurer’s service account,
• $90.6 million from the Washington student loan account,
• $70.0 million from the model toxics control accounts, and
• $73.1 million from other accounts.

The $73.1 million in net transfers from other accounts is comprised of $206.6 million transferred from the NGFO to four other accounts and $279.6 million from 44 other accounts to the NGFO.

Looking back over transfers made in each biennium, the accounts that have been tapped the most going back to 2005–07 are the budget stabilization account (BSA), the public works assistance account, various school construction accounts, various toxics control accounts, and the state treasurer’s service account.

In the chart, I’ve combined the BSA with the Washington rescue plan transition account (WRPTA). Use of these accounts explains the odd transfers in 2019–21 and 2021–23. In 2019–21, the Legislature transferred $1.820 billion from the BSA to the NGFO and then transferred $1.0 billion to the WRPTA. In 2021–23, the Legislature transferred $1.1 billion from the NGFO to the WRPTA. Then, in 2023–25, the Legislature transferred $2.1 billion from the WRPTA to the NGFO. (For more on these maneuvers, see here.)