Budget

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 […]

Rental assistance funding in Gov. Inslee’s budget proposals and federal relief bills

The new federal relief bill appropriates $25 billion for emergency rental assistance. It will be distributed to states and local governments using the same methodology as the Coronavirus Relief Fund (except local governments will get direct federal allocations if their populations exceed 200,000 instead of 500,000). It’s not clear how much Washington will receive, but […]

How the pandemic is affecting public school funding in Washington and elsewhere in the U.S.

A New York Times article last week looked at public school funding issues related to the pandemic. The new federal aid bill, which was signed by the president on Sunday, includes $54.3 billion for the elementary and secondary school emergency relief (ESSER) fund. (That’s on top of $13.5 billion for this purpose that was part […]

Washington has allocated more than it received from the coronavirus relief fund

Originally, states and local governments had until Dec. 30, 2020 to use their shares of the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF). Gov. Inslee has allocated $2.218 billion—$50.6 million more than the state government received from the federal government. This is based on allocation memos posted by the Office of Financial Management (OFM) to date. (The […]

Washington will use federal CARES Act funds to provide “pandemic relief payments” in response to the lapse in federal unemployment insurance benefits

Earlier this month, Gov. Inslee announced that Washington would use $54.6 million of the state’s share of the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) for unemployment insurance benefits for people in the federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) program, if the federal government didn’t act to extend the program before it was set to expire on Dec. […]

New federal coronavirus aid bill extends the time states have to spend coronavirus relief fund money

Congress has passed new COVID-19 aid, as part of the FY 2021 appropriation bill. The COVID-19 aid portion appropriates $900 billion. The hold-up in getting a new relief package has been disagreements over whether to include liability protections for businesses and funding for state and local governments. In the end, neither policy was included. However, […]

State and local funding continues to be a sticking point in Congressional relief package negotiations

The Wall Street Journal reports that Congress is getting closer to a new relief package, but state and local funding and liability protections are sticking points. “There are still some issues that are outstanding and it’s no secret generally speaking state and local and liability have always been the difficult issues,” said Rep. Tom Reed […]

How important is another federal relief bill to Washington’s budget?

Earlier this year, Congress enacted relief packages that appropriated trillions of dollars. But since the spring, Congress has failed to enact additional funding. A new federal aid package may be welcome for many reasons—including for businesses and individuals. State and local governments have asked for more funding as well. But such additional funding for state […]

Still no word on additional federal relief funds for states

The U.S. Congress still hasn’t come to an agreement on a new coronavirus relief package. The Wall Street Journal reports that state and local funding remains a sticking point in negotiations. In May, the U.S. House passed a $3 trillion bill, which would give states $500 billion and local governments $375 billion that could be […]

President issues executive orders related to COVID-19 relief

Congress has still not come to an agreement on a new COVID-19 relief package. (As I wrote last week, Washington is hoping for new federal funds to help address the state budget problem.) In the meantime, on Saturday, President Trump signed four executive orders that are meant to provide some relief (though not for state […]