The Office of Financial Management (OFM) has determined that the collective bargaining agreements (CBA) negotiated with state employee unions for 2021–23 are financially feasible. By statute, this means that they will be included in Gov. Inslee’s budget proposal (RCW 41.80.010(3)).

I wrote about the tentative CBAs in October. For general government employees, there is no general wage increase, and employees will have 24 furlough days. According to OFM, the furloughs amount to a 4.6% pay cut and are estimated to save $92.7 million. On the other hand, the CBA for K–12 employee health benefits is estimated to increase spending by $329.9 million. There are also some wage increases, including for individual providers of home care services. Altogether, in October, OFM estimated that the CBAs would increase general fund–state spending in 2021–23 by $356.4 million.

The Legislature must approve or reject the funding request for the CBAs as a whole.