The Senate Ways & Means Committee chair has proposed an operating budget for 2023–25 that would appropriate $69.184 billion from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO). (That figure includes $50.2 million that would be appropriated by E2SSB 5536, which relates to controlled substances and the Blake decision.) This level of appropriations would be a 7.9% increase over 2021–23 (as revised in the enacted 2022 supplemental).

The proposal does not include general tax increases, but it would increase premium tax revenues by $66.5 million in 2023–25 and by $86.8 million in 2025–27 via “anticipated legislation improving hospital payments through managed care organizations.”

It would use some reserves to help fund spending. The proposal would transfer $650 million from the Washington rescue plan transition account (WRPTA, a reserve account that is not subject to constitutional restrictions) to the NGFO in fiscal year 2025. This would leave $1.450 billion in the account. Additionally, the 2022 supplemental budget had assumed in the outlook that $500 million would be transferred from the NGFO to the WRPTA in 2023–25. That transfer would not be made under the Senate chair’s proposal, so altogether there would be $1.150 billion less in the WRPTA than planned.

Meanwhile, the proposal would not make any withdrawals from the budget stabilization account (BSA, or the rainy day fund) and would continue to make the required contributions to it.

The unrestricted ending fund balance at the end of 2025–27 would be $131 million. Total reserves (including the unrestricted ending balance, the BSA, and the WRPTA) would be $3.711 billion.

Stay tuned for more as I read through the details.