Earlier this month, Gov. Inslee announced a lottery for vaccinated Washingtonians, including cash prizes, tuition funding, and various other incentives (many of which are being donated by businesses). According to the Office of Financial Management (OFM), the state is spending $3.8 million on these prizes, all of which comes from federal funds.

Of that amount, $3.3 million is from the state’s share of the coronavirus relief fund (CRF). (The remaining $500,000 is from a federal immunization grant.) Specifically, the $3.3 million from the CRF is coming from a pot of $12.0 million that the Legislature appropriated earlier this year to the new “COVID-19 public health response account” (ESHB 1368, Sec. 18 and 19). The account must “be used to effectively administer the vaccine for COVID-19 and conduct testing and contact tracing.” The language of the bill gives the Department of Health considerable flexibility in how the funding will be used.

(I wrote last week about Washington’s use of its share of the CRF.)

Gov. Inslee’s announcement of the lottery also mentioned $1 million in gift cards that will be handed out at vaccine locations, to be provided as a partnership between the Department of Commerce, the Association of Washington Business (AWB), and local Chambers of Commerce. AWB describes the program as “a campaign that not only encourages more people to get vaccinated, but also helps local shops and restaurants bounce back.” This $1 million is not included in the $3.8 million noted above. Instead, the funding for this program is part of the $175 million appropriated from the budget stabilization account in EHB 2965 last year. (I’ll have more on how that $175 million has been used in my next post.)