General fund–state (GFS) appropriations for the Department of Commerce more than doubled in 2021–23 and 2023–25. Commerce’s budget request for 2025–27 would increase its GFS appropriations by $89.3 million (7.8%) over 2023–25. This includes a carry-forward level reduction of $381.0 million, a maintenance level increase of $15.5 million, and new policy increases of $454.9 million. (See the box at the bottom of this post for budget and fund terminology.)

Appropriations from all funds for Commerce increased so dramatically beginning in 2019–21 (see the chart below) because the department was responsible for distributing a lot of the federal pandemic relief. Additionally, GFS appropriations have increased so much over the past few biennia largely because of the state’s increased focus on housing and homelessness.

The proposed GFS maintenance level increase for Commerce is just $15.5 million in 2025–27 and $536,000 in 2027–29. However, there are two notable maintenance level items. First, the request would improve transparency by changing how Commerce’s spending is reported. Currently, in the state’s historical spending reports for Commerce, the department’s spending is broken out in several categories. The largest category by far is “community services and housing.” The 2025–27 budget request would split that category in two. This would make it much easier for the public to track how much the state is spending on housing programs.

Second, Commerce is requesting a transfer of $402.9 million from the GFS to three housing accounts that are supposed to be funded by document recording fees. (Because the funds would not be directly appropriated from the GFS, the amount is not included in the total GFS maintenance level.) Of that amount, $302.5 million would go to the home security fund account, $88.1 million would go to the affordable housing for all account, and $12.3 million would go to the landlord mitigation program account.

Commerce describes this request as a “document recording fee backfill.” The request estimates that there will be $186 million in revenues for 2025–27 from the document recording fees, and it notes that the revenues from these fees have decreased over the past few years. However, the shortfall Commerce is describing appears to be the difference between what Commerce wants to spend and the resources it expects—not a shortfall between previously estimated resources and currently estimated resources.

In addition to the $186 million expected from document recording fees, there is $319.4 million from the GFS in the carry-forward level for these programs. Commerce estimates that it will need about $818 million “in state funds to operate at today’s levels” and another $90.5 million “to account for inflationary costs, address workforce issues, and address caseload growth in 2025­27.” The difference between current resources and the spending request is $402.9 million. (Meanwhile, the difference between the current estimate of document recording fee revenue and the estimate in 2021 is $106 million.)

Commerce is also requesting $454.9 million in 2025–27 and $444.9 million in 2027–29 for new policy items. These include:

• $51.1 million in 2025–27 and $62.4 million in 2027–29 to increase state funding that supplements federal Victims of Crime Act awards.
• $55.3 million in 2025–27 and $55.3 million in 2027–29 for electric vehicle adoption programs. Another $110.9 million in 2025–27 and $110.7 million in 2027–29 for this purpose would come from other accounts. The money would be used for instant rebates, home charging rebates, charging reliability standards, and EV council operations.
• $52.8 million in 2025–27 and $51.3 million in 2027–29 for energy and utility assistance for low-income households. The state funding would be used to maintain this assistance at the elevated pandemic level, as federal relief funds have returned to normal levels.
• $45.0 million in 2025–27 and $45.0 million in 2027–29 to expand broadband navigation services. (The digital navigator program currently receives $10 million a biennium.)
• $40.0 million in 2025–27 and $40.0 million in 2027–29 for the small business disaster recovery financial assistance program.
• $20.4 million in 2025–27 and $20.4 million in 2027–29 for the small business resiliency network.
• $20.0 million in 2025–27 and $20.0 million in 2027–29 for legal services for immigrants at the Northwest Immigration and Customs Enforcement Processing Center in Tacoma.

Additionally, Commerce requests $231.0 million in 2025–27 and $231.1 million in 2027–29 from the community reinvestment account for the community reinvestment project. The community reinvestment account has no dedicated revenue source, so the money would have to be transferred from the GFS. The Legislature created the account in 2022 and appropriated $200.0 million from the GFS to the account. That appropriation was meant to be one-time.

(Previous posts on 2025–27 agency requests are here. Our reports on the projected 2025–27 budget shortfall are here and here.)