As I showed yesterday, the state has already allocated or appropriated $7.311 billion in federal relief dollars. On top of that, the Senate-passed operating budget would appropriate $6.837 billion and the House-passed operating budget would appropriate $8.776 billion in federal relief over three years. This relief funding does not just maintain state spending (as the federal stimulus funds did in the Great Recession)—it substantially increases spending even as spending from state funds also increases.

For 2019–21, the Senate-passed supplemental operating budget would appropriate $52.704 billion from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) plus $514.0 million in federal relief. With the $7.311 billion in federal relief that has already been allocated, the Senate-passed supplemental would increase spending by 35.5% over 2017–19.

Similarly, for 2019–21, the House-passed supplemental operating budget would appropriate $52.319 billion from the NGFO plus $644.2 million in federal relief. With the previously-allocated $7.311 billion, the House-passed supplemental would increase spending by 34.9% over 2017–19.

The increases would continue in 2021–23. The Senate would appropriate $59.282 billion from the NGFO plus $6.323 billion in federal relief. This would be an increase of 8.4% over the Senate supplemental.

The House would appropriate $58.479 billion from the NGFO plus $8.132 billion in federal relief in 2021–23, an increase of 10.5% over the House supplemental.

Including the federal relief, the growth rates proposed in each supplemental compared to the previous biennium would be by far the highest, going back to at least the mid-1990s.