Emily Makings

Managing budget expectations

Last week, David Schumacher, the director of the Office of Financial Management (OFM), gave the Washington State Senior Citizens Foundation a preview of the upcoming budget cycle. He attempted to tamp down expectations of another big-spending year. This welcome reminder comes after agencies have submitted substantial operating budget requests for 2023–25 (my overview is here; […]

Some good news on long-term care program solvency

In 2020, after passage of Washington’s long-term care (LTC) program but before any premiums were assessed, Milliman prepared an actuarial study of the program for the state. It estimated that the statutory premium rate of 0.58% would “be insufficient to keep the program solvent for 75 years under the current law.” Given that and widespread […]

How the paid family and medical leave and long-term care payroll taxes will impact employees next year

As I wrote yesterday, the paid family and medical leave (PFML) premium will increase from 0.6% to 0.8% next year (including a solvency surcharge). The PFML premium is paid on wages up to the Social Security cap, which is increasing 9.0% next year to $160,200. Additionally, the state’s long-term care (LTC) program is scheduled to […]

Paid family and medical leave premium rate will increase to 0.8% next year

The Employment Security Department (ESD) has announced that the premium rate for the paid family and medical leave (PFML) program will be 0.8% in 2023. (The announcement was made at today’s meeting of the PFML advisory committee.) The current rate is 0.6%, which is the maximum base rate allowed by statute. The 0.8% rate includes […]

Compensation increases drive the community and technical college system’s budget request

The community and technical college system (CTCS) has requested a 2023–25 budget that would increase its general fund–state (GFS) spending by $622.9 million (39.5%). Compensation items account for 50.8% of the maintenance and policy level changes in the request. First, the request estimates that funding the Initiative 732 cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) for the biennium would […]

Value of agricultural production in Washington declines in 2021 (when adjusted for inflation)

According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS), the value of agricultural production in Washington was $10.233 billion in 2021. In nominal terms, that’s just barely up from $10.213 billion in 2020. Adjusted for inflation, the value dropped by 3.5% in 2021. From 2011 to 2021, the value of Washington’s agricultural production increased by 7.8%. […]

K–12 budget request includes major staff compensation increases, elimination of the special education funding cap

For 2023–25, the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction (OSPI) is asking for a $6.565 billion increase to its general fund–state (GFS) budget. This would be an increase of 25.3% over 2021–23. (Adjusted for inflation, the increase would be 18.7%. That’s on par with spending increases made in response to the McCleary decision on school […]

Collective bargaining agreements with state and non-state employees would increase general fund–state spending by $2.893 billion over four years

The state negotiates collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) with general government employees, community college employees, certain law enforcement employees, and ferry employees. It also negotiates CBAs with certain non-state employees, and it negotiates with K–12 school employees over health care benefits. At a work session of the Joint Committee on Employment Relations last week, the Office […]

Social Security contribution base will increase by 9.0% next year, increasing the wages subject to Washington’s paid family and medical leave premiums

Yesterday the Social Security Administration announced that the amount of wages subject to the Social Security tax will increase from $147,000 in 2022 to $160,200 in 2023. The 9.0% increase in the contribution base is the largest since 1983. In Washington, paid family and medical leave (PFML) premiums are assessed on wages up to the […]

For 2023–25, the Department of Commerce asks to nearly double the substantial GFS budget step-up it received this biennium

The Department of Commerce, like the Department of Health, received extraordinary amounts of federal relief over the past few biennia related to the pandemic. For example, Commerce is the state agency responsible for distributing pandemic rental and business assistance. General fund–state (GFS) appropriations for Commerce in 2021–23 increased by 249.3% over 2019–21. Now, Commerce is […]