Yesterday Gov. Ferguson held a press conference to discuss the housing funding in his supplemental capital budget proposal. He is proposing an additional $244 million for housing (including programs in the operating budget). He also said that his office made some adjustments to the budget proposals to help with recovery efforts from the recent flooding in Washington.

Additionally, yesterday Gov. Ferguson signed an executive order that creates the “Washington State Task Force on the establishment of a Department of Housing.” The idea is to have a cabinet-level agency to serve “as the state’s coordinating, problem-solving, and implementation hub for expanding housing supply across Washington.” The task force is charged with recommending a mission, governance structure, and operational plans for the new department, with a report due by Nov. 15, 2026.

Today, Gov. Ferguson announced that he is including $2.1 billion over 10 years for preservation and maintenance in his supplemental transportation budget proposal. (Of that, $300 million would be appropriated in 2025–27.) This would be funded using current bond authority. $1.1 billion of the funding would be used for bridges and $920 million would be used for paving projects (over 10 years). The governor is also proposing three new ferries, which would use another $1 billion in bond capacity.

The governor’s supplemental transportation budget documents are available here. It appears that the major transportation accounts balance through 2029–31.

The governor’s complete supplemental capital budget proposal has not yet been posted publicly. For reference, the enacted 2025–27 capital budget appropriated $7.569 billion from all budgeted funds. The enacted 2025–27 transportation budget appropriated $15.608 billion from all budgeted funds.

Apparently, Gov. Ferguson will release information on his operating budget proposal next week. By statute, the governor is required to submit his budget documents to the Legislature by Dec. 20, unless the fiscal period is not a biennium. Because this is a supplemental budget that will apply for a fiscal year, the statutory deadline is 20 days prior to session. This year, that is Dec. 23.

Meanwhile, yesterday Rep. Couture (ranking member of House Appropriations) released an operating budget framework that proposes new funding for specific programs and spending reductions for others. The document includes cost estimates, but it’s not always clear if the increases and decreases are to funds subject to the outlook or over what time period. It states that the savings total $3.7 billion over the outlook period, but that includes a shift of $1.562 billion from the NGFO to Climate Commitment Act funds. Regardless, although these ideas for savings are worth consideration, they would not close the budget shortfall on their own—as the document itself notes.

After closing the budget shortfall this year, the framework proposes two budget reforms that could “create ongoing savings.” First, it would impose an expenditure limit tied to inflation and population growth. Any revenue over the limit would be used for tax relief. Second, it would implement zero-based budgeting: “This proposal seeks a programmatic review of 20% of the state budget each biennium, effectively requiring each agency to account for every dollar spent on every program and to justify the continuance of programs to the public before receiving state funding.” I wrote about the opacity of the state budget, and why it is a problem, here.

Finally, here is our report on the enacted 2025–27 operating budget, and here is our report showing how the shortfalls developed in the first place.