Gov. Inslee proposes increasing appropriations from funds subject to the outlook to $57.849 billion for 2021–23. That’s an increase of 7.7% from enacted 2019–21 appropriations. (If the governor’s 2021 supplemental proposal is enacted, it would be an increase of 9.6%.)

The governor’s office estimates that the maintenance level (the cost of continuing current services, adjusted for inflation and enrollment) for 2021–23 is $56.112 billion. On top of that, the governor proposes $1.737 billion in new policy items.

Big ticket items include:

• $400.0 million in one-time funding for public school districts “to expand learning opportunities and implement additional instruction, enrichment and student supports based on an evaluation of student needs”;
• $75.6 million for student access to internet and technology;
• $32.0 million for counselors in high poverty schools;
• $387.5 million for COVID-19 testing, contact tracing, care coordination, outbreak response, data collections, and communications (on top of the $125.9 million for this purpose in the governor’s 2021 supplemental proposal);
• $112.0 million in support for the UW Medical Center, Harborview, and UW School of Dentistry (on top of the $60.0 million for this purpose in the governor’s 2021 supplemental);
• $164.0 million for rental assistance;
• $148.2 million for a “shared benefit adjustment” for programs in the Department of Social and Health Services;
• $143.0 million to restore savings that haven’t been realized from Health Care Authority program integrity activities;
• $61.6 million to restore savings that haven’t been realized in the Healthier WA project;
• $55.1 million for debt service on new bonds; and
• $34.1 million to pay the governor’s proposed covered lives tax for Medicaid enrollees.

The spending increases are offset to an extent by several savings items, including:

• -$121.0 million by assuming the federal government will continue to delay a reduction in disproportionate share hospital grants,
• -$108.4 million from sentencing and policy changes leading to reduced daily populations in correctional facilities,
• -$74.3 million by reducing prison staffing,
• -$99.4 million by closing civil wards and Western and Eastern State Hospitals,
• -$65.5 million by using marijuana tax revenue in lieu of the general fund–state for low-income health care, and
• -$41.5 million by delaying the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program (ECEAP) entitlement indefinitely.

(Earlier posts on the governor’s budget proposals: An overview, proposed spending changes in the 2021 supplemental.)