The Office of the Secretary of State is requesting a 40.4% increase to its 2023–25 general fund–state (GFS) appropriations.

The largest item is $23.8 million in 2023–25 to reimburse counties for election costs. According to the request, the enacted 2023–25 biennial budget “does not allocate sufficient funds to reimburse the state share of costs to the counties and includes no funding for the Presidential Primary.” The 2023–25 biennial budget appropriated $14.7 million to reimburse counties for election costs, which is $5.5 million less than was appropriated for that purpose in 2021–23 (as revised by the 2023 supplemental).

The budget request also includes a $2.0 million increase in 2023–25 for TVW. The request notes, “TVW’s substantial increase in viewership is driving increased broadband as well as coverage and digital storage costs (including costs associated with storage). Increases to the minimum wage for exempt employees anticipated in 2024 would increase staffing costs.” It includes the following chart of annual TVW viewers, showing a remarkable increase in 2023.

According to the request, “Without this supplement, TVW would be forced to reduce its level of service to the state of Washington, which could include, but is not limited to, a return to the ‘television only’ offerings, a reduction in events covered and other significant reductions to our gavel­to­gavel coverage.”

Finally, the Secretary of State is requesting $3.9 million in 2023–25 to backfill document recording fee revenues. Document recording fees are the main source of funding for the Washington State Library and Washington State Archives. However, as I have written previously, document recording fee revenues are falling short of estimates, as fewer documents are being recorded. The Library’s current appropriation is $14.7 million, but it expects revenues of just $11.1 million. The appropriation for the Archives is $12.0 million, but it expects revenues of just $8.2 million.

(Previous posts on agency 2024 supplemental budget requests are here.)