The Senate passed its capital budget (ESSB 5200) on March 24. It has not yet passed its bond bill (SSB 5201). As approved by the Ways & Means Committee, the bond bill would authorize $4.167 billion in general obligation bonds.

The House has not yet passed either its capital budget (SHB 1147) or its bond bill (SHB 1148). As approved by the House Committee on Capital Budget, the bond bill would authorize $4.186 billion in general obligation bonds. Both the Senate and House bond bills would make a one-time $400 million adjustment to the available debt capacity, “to reflect previously unused bond issuance authority.”

Neither the Senate nor the House capital budgets assume passage of Gov. Inslee’s proposed housing referendum. However, the House-passed operating budget includes $1.1 million in 2023–25 and $55.8 million in 2025–27 for the debt service for the housing bonds if the referendum bill is passed by the Legislature and the voters.

The Senate-passed capital budget would appropriate $7.892 billion from all funds in 2023–25. The capital budget approved by the House Committee on Capital Budget would appropriate $8.091 billion from all funds. (Gov. Inslee had proposed appropriating $8.904 billion.) Both the Senate and the House proposals would be on par with appropriations in 2021–23, when the state received an unusually high amount of federal funding and an extraordinary transfer of funds from the state operating budget.

Chart 2 shows how the appropriations in each proposal would be distributed. Some notable items:

• Both the Senate and House would appropriate $400.0 million for the Housing Trust Fund.
• In the Dept. of Commerce, the House would appropriate significantly more than the Senate or the governor for behavioral health community capacity grants and broadband.
• Both the Senate and House would appropriate $400.0 million for the public works assistance program.
• In the Dept. of Social and Health Services (DSHS), for the new Western State forensic hospital, the Senate would appropriate $650.0 million and the House would appropriate $613.0 million. (The governor had proposed appropriating $895.0 million.)
• As shown in Chart 3, appropriations for housing programs would make up 7.9% of the Senate proposal and 8.2% of the House proposal.