The 2019–21 operating budget passed by the Legislature appropriates $52.419 billion from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) and $393.6 million from the new workforce education investment account (WEIA, in E2SHB 2158). The spending from the WEIA would normally come from the NGFO, so it is appropriate, for the sake of budget transparency, to convey budget numbers in terms of the NGFO plus WEIA. On this basis, 2019–21 appropriations are $52.813 billion (an 18.3 percent increase over 2017–19). All the figures below are in terms of the NGFO plus WEIA.

The 2019–21 maintenance level (the cost of continuing current services) is $50.485 billion. On top of that, new policy increases appropriations by $2.328 billion. The chart shows how these policy changes are distributed across budget areas.

Some of the major new spending items include:

• State employee compensation (about $461 million)
• Collective bargaining agreements for individual providers of in-home care ($72.4 million) and parity for agency providers ($22.8 million), adult family homes ($37.6 million), family child care centers ($52.8 million), and language access providers ($635,000)
• School employee health benefits ($328.7 million)
• Special education ($155.2 million)
• Local effort assistance ($61.6 million)
• Foundational support for higher education institutions ($65.5 million)
• State Need Grant/new Washington College Grant ($179.7 million)
• Salary increases for nurse educators and other high-demand faculty at community and technical colleges ($60.8 million)
• Trueblood settlement ($73.9 million)
• State hospital operations ($66.2 million)
• Homelessness-related programs ($44.1 million)
• Debt service on new capital projects ($40.5 million)
• Program integrity efforts in Medicaid managed care plans (savings of $101.8 million)
• A 1 percent reduction in overtime costs, professional service contracts, travel, goods and services, and capital outlays (savings of $22.5 million)

For a broad overview of the budget, see here.