Budget

Senate Ways & Means Chair’s operating budget proposal would increase NGFO appropriations by $1.14 billion

The Senate Ways & Means Committee Chair has released her proposed 2020 supplemental operating budget. It would increase 2019–21 appropriations from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) by $1.141 billion. Of that, $997.1 million is new policy and $143.4 million is maintenance level increases (the cost of continuing current services). The budget assumes passage of […]

ERFC increases 2019–21 revenue forecast to $52.3 billion

As Kriss predicted, today’s revenue forecast increased the funds available for budget writers this session. The Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC) now expects state revenues from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) to be $52,339.5 million in 2019–21 (an increase of $606.0 million from the November forecast) and $55,689.8 million in 2021–23 (an increase […]

New brief: Gov. Inslee’s 2020 Supplemental Operating Budget Would Tap the Rainy Day Fund

Economic growth since the 2019 legislative session ended means that the Legislature has $1.016 billion more to work with over four years than it did when the biennial budget was adopted. Gov. Inslee has proposed a 2020 supplemental operating budget that would appropriate $318.7 million from the budget stabilization account (BSA, or rainy day fund) […]

Gov. Inslee’s current law NGFO budget would spend more than preferred budget (thanks to increased hunting and fishing fees)

By law, the governor is required to propose a budget that balances within existing revenues (called the current law or “book 1” budget). Governors typically also propose alternative budgets that are based on increased revenues (“book 2” budgets)—these alternative budgets represent their preferred budgets. Unusually, Gov. Inslee’s current law 2020 supplemental budget would appropriate more […]

Gov. Inslee would allow workforce education investment account to supplant other funding for higher education

One of the major new taxes enacted in 2019 was the workforce education investment surcharge (E2SHB 2158). Under the bill, businesses in certain sectors in the “other business or service activities” category must pay a 20 percent business and occupation (B&O) tax surcharge. Advanced computing businesses must pay higher surcharges. (See our policy brief for […]

Notes on Gov. Inslee’s spending proposals

Earlier, Kriss gave an overview of Gov. Inslee’s proposed 2020 supplemental operating budget, focusing on the balance sheet. As Kriss noted, Gov. Inslee would make significant appropriations from the budget stabilization account (BSA, or rainy day fund). As such, it’s important to consider the level of appropriations from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO) and […]

Happy Fiscal New Year!

Today is the first day of fiscal year 2020 and the first day of the 2019–21 biennium. It’s a good time to review the biennial budget. The operating budget for 2019–21 (accounting for vetoes) appropriates $52.873 billion from funds subject to the outlook and the workforce education investment account. For more on the budget (as […]

Running tally of 2019 revenue legislation, 5th edition

[UPDATE 6/27/2019: An updated version of the table is available here.] I’ve updated our table showing the revenue impacts of tax bills passed by the Legislature this year. It incorporates new information from updated fiscal notes and from the official outlook adopted by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council earlier this week. Note that although […]

Official budget outlook: 2019–21 operating budget doesn’t balance over four years

The official budget outlook for the 2019–21 operating budget has been adopted by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council (ERFC). (Technically, there was not a quorum at the ERFC’s meeting this morning, so the staff-proposed outlook was adopted by default.) The conference report for the operating budget was released to the public the day before […]

Running tally of 2019 revenue legislation, 4th edition

[UPDATE 6/27/2019: An updated version of the table is available here.] Yesterday we published a policy brief that takes a detailed look at the tax bills passed by the Legislature this year. This follows our overview of the operating budget deal and a brief detailing the appropriations. The numbers in these briefs are not final: […]