Budget

Including federal relief funds, the spending increases in the operating budget proposals are extraordinarily high

As I showed yesterday, the state has already allocated or appropriated $7.311 billion in federal relief dollars. On top of that, the Senate-passed operating budget would appropriate $6.837 billion and the House-passed operating budget would appropriate $8.776 billion in federal relief over three years. This relief funding does not just maintain state spending (as the […]

Senate- and House-passed budgets would appropriate $8.426 billion and $10.166 billion, respectively, in federal relief funding

Federal COVID relief legislation since March 2020 has appropriated more than $24 billion that has flowed or will flow through Washington’s state and local governments. Allocations from the latest bill, the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, are still being determined, so the $24 billion figure will grow. (Indeed, note that the numbers in this post […]

Including federal relief funds, 2019–21 spending in the Senate W&M chair’s operating budget would increase by 33% over 2017–19

The Senate W&M chair’s operating budget proposal would appropriate $52.701 billion in 2019–21 and $59.215 billion in 2021–23 from funds subject to the outlook (NGFO). Those amounts represent increases of 17.9% and 12.4% over the previous biennium, respectively. However, they do not include the federal relief funds the state has received and will receive. According […]

Washington’s state and local governments will have more than $11 billion in federal relief funding to distribute from the ARP Act

There are several funding buckets in the ARP Act. The largest that will be distributed by states and local governments are the fiscal relief funds and the emergency and secondary school emergency relief funds. But there’s also funding for childcare, transit, and rental assistance, for example. The table below shows known and estimated federal allocations […]

How much the state, cities, and counties are expected to receive from the new state and local fiscal recovery funds (by jurisdiction)

The state treasurer notes that Washington’s state and local governments will receive about $7 billion from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. He is referring to the amounts from the state and local fiscal recovery funds, which are direct funding for governments that are meant to be used to respond to the emergency or cover […]

Public health funding would push Washington’s share of the federal relief bill over $10 billion

As I wrote earlier this week, the American Rescue Plan Act that was passed by the U.S. House on Saturday would send billions of dollars to Washington (if enacted). Two major pieces of the legislation are the coronavirus state and local fiscal recovery funds (sec. 5001). The Tax Foundation estimates that, if the bill is […]

Washington has over a billion dollars from the latest round of federal relief funding to distribute; how should such funds be dealt with in the future (if the Legislature is not in session)?

Washington has received billions of dollars in federal COVID relief funding since the Legislature adjourned last year. The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has been tracking the federal relief dollars. They estimate that state and local relief funding for Washington is up to about $6.43 billion. (That includes, for example, the coronavirus relief fund, […]

Public higher education institutions in Washington will receive $329.5 million from federal COVID relief bill passed last month

The federal CARES Act (enacted in March 2020) included a Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER I) Fund, which provided relief funding directly to public and private higher education institutions. The CARES Act generally required institutions to use 50% of their allocations for student financial aid grants. According to the U.S. Department of Education, public and […]

House and Senate Democrats propose spending $164.3 million from the rainy day fund and would direct how to spend $2.425 billion of federal funding

Friday afternoon Democrats in the House and Senate announced their early action relief bills (HB 1367 and HB 1368, and companion bills SB 5343 and SB 5344). Together, the bills would appropriate $2.589 billion from state and local funds ($164.3 million from the rainy day fund and $2.425 billion in federal funds). Of that, $403.6 […]

A new bill would use the rainy day fund to provide COVID–19 relief for individuals, businesses, and schools and direct how to allocate federal relief funds

Today Rep. Stokesbary introduced HB 1334. The bill would appropriate $4.175 billion in state and federal funds for COVID-19 relief for the 2019–21 biennium. Of that, $1.735 billion would come from the budget stabilization account (BSA, or the rainy day fund) and $2.440 billion would come from federal funds. The federal funds allocated are from […]