Another of the reforms included in the Senate supplemental budget proposal is ESJR 8222, which would amend the constitution to require balanced budgets.  It was passed by the Senate February 13, by a vote of 36-12.

As the bill report mentions,

The state Budget and Accounting Act requires the Governor to submit to the Legislature a biennial budget proposal that is balanced within the state’s existing revenues. However, neither state law nor the state Constitution require the Legislature to enact a balanced state budget act.

ESJR 8222 would do so.  First, it would require, beginning with fiscal year 2014, that no appropriations bills be enacted or signed if the amount appropriated from the general fund (when combined with all other general fund appropriations already made for that fiscal year and the amount transferred from the general fund to the budget stabilization account) exceeds the prior fund balance and general fund revenues for that fiscal year (as estimated by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council).

Second, it would require that no appropriations bills be enacted or signed if they require “general fund appropriations necessary to maintain estimated program and service levels either funded in that appropriations bill or mandated by other state law” for the subsequent three years to be in excess of general fund revenues.  This provision would not be effective in fiscal years “in which money is withdrawn and appropriated from the budget stabilization account.”

In 2008, the National Association of State Budget Officers (NASBO) released a report on budget processes in the states.  Their review of state laws showed that 41 states require the legislature to pass balanced budgets (of those, 33 have constitutional requirements).  Thirty-seven states require the governor to sign balanced budgets (of those, 31 have constitutional requirements).

The NASBO report notes this about Washington:

Although the legal requirement for a balanced budget only applies to the Governor, the legislature has always passed a balanced budget using the official General Fund forecast. State law forbids expenditures without supporting revenues. An agency may receive permission to carry over a temporary cash deficit, however longer term deficits would result in an expenditure authority reduction by the Governor, or a legislative budget change to bring the fund back into balance.