On Tuesday, Gov. Inslee announced that an additional $50 million will be allocated for Working Washington grants for businesses. This is on top of the $50 million for these grants that was announced in November. The governor didn’t specify where this funding is coming from, but it sounds like it will come out of the state’s share of the federal Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF), just like the earlier funding.

I won’t update our CRF allocation tracker until the official OFM allocation memo is posted, but if this goes through, the state will have about $61 million left by my count. It would also mean that economic support has been the largest use of the CRF for the state. (The economic support category includes business assistance and aid for individuals.) Not including the new $50 million, $125 million has been allocated for business support to date.

Additionally, Gov. Inslee said that if Congress doesn’t extend pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) past its Dec. 26 expiration, the state will continue to pay those benefits. (As part of the CARES Act, Congress provided unemployment insurance benefits for workers not normally eligible, like the self-employed, independent contractors, and part-time workers.) Gov. Inslee said,

So, if Congress does not act, the state will provide relief to those who are on the pandemic unemployment system as of the week of Nov. 21. That will happen by the end of December. We will not allow people to fall off that cliff in the state of Washington if Congress does not act. . . . If they do not act we will be there, at a minimum, for at least the first month of folks who would otherwise fall off that cliff.

Again, it sounds like this funding would come from the CRF:

We have the ability to do this through December without the necessity of legislative action. So we have the funds that are available through executive action to do that. . . . And importantly we have started the machinery of the Employment Security Department already to be able to get this done and get those transfers to these bank accounts in December.

Paul Roberts reports in the Seattle Times that the state will allocate $54.6 million of the state’s CARES Act funding (presumably the CRF) for this purpose. Additionally, Roberts writes, “The state would have between $100 million and $130 million in CARES funding left after paying for the PUA replacement package and other programs, according to the Office of Financial Management.” If so, there may be some reductions to previous allocations from the CRF coming.