Senate Democrats unveil historic $59B two-year budget proposal

It was not that long ago that Washington state expected to be in pretty bad shape from the COVID-ravaged economy, but as it turns out, things were not as bad as expected.

The latest economic revenue forecast projects the state will collect over $3 billion more through the rest of this budget cycle and the next biennium. Senate Democrats are taking that news, a $7 billion economic helping hand from the federal government, and looking to make history.

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“Truly historic and ambitious,” said Senate Budget Leader Christine Rolfes, as the team rolled out their $59.2 billion proposed spending plan for the next two years.

“It’s going to help us not just with recovery, but with strengthening us, with providing resilience as we grow our way out of this pandemic,” Rolfes explained.

The 2021-23 operating budget proposal also includes assumed capital gains revenue from the expected passage of SB 5096, which has already made history clearing the Senate. It awaits a House vote. When the controversial tax proposal cleared the Senate by a single vote margin, it did so largely due to the removal of a referendum blocking an emergency clause that had been included in the bill. It’s not clear whether that might be added back in the House, and if so, whether it could pass the Senate again if it did – until now.

“We will pass whatever the House sends back to us,” bill sponsor Senator June Robinson explained when asked during Thursday’s budget release.

Republicans maintained there was no need for new taxes, even when we thought the state economy would take a significant hit, but that’s even more true now with better-than-expected revenue projections and significant help from the federal government.

“We already know it’s unconstitutional, we already know that it’s going to have a lawsuit against it if it does pass, but it’s so volatile, I don’t understand how you can count on that,” said Senate Republican Budget Lead Linda Wilson.

“Even California has decided not to include that in their budget because it’s so volatile,” Wilson added, and that wasn’t the only issue she had with the spending plan.

“[It’s the] largest increase over a quarter that has ever been. We have over $3.3 billion over the course of the next few years that they are spending, plus they’re spending $1.8 billion of the Rainy Day Fund,” Wilson said.

Rolfes says there will be about a billion dollars left in the Rainy Day Fund when all is said and done and the payoff is huge with historic investments in multiple areas, including child care.

The pandemic has highlighted the significant shortage of quality child care and early learning opportunities in the state, and this budget addresses that with $450 million in combined state and federal dollars to fully fund the Fair Start for Kids Act, which includes a major expansion of the Early Childhood Education and Assistance Program. It will lead to an expected 900 new slots by 2023.

The pandemic also revealed just how underfunded our public health systems have been for decades, and there is a strong desire to ensure that is not the case for the next emergency.

To that end, there is more than $1.1 billion invested in public health, including funds for expanding the workforce.

Aside from the pandemic response, police accountability was a major goal of the legislative session and a majority of those bills are moving. There are significant investments for those included in the budget proposal, including funding for the yet-to-be-created Office of Independent Investigations to handle deadly use of force incidents involving police. This is seen as vital to starting to restore public trust between communities and police.

A full list of highlights in the budget proposal can be found here.

Senate Democrats also unveiled the largest-ever capital construction budget in state history. The $6.2 billion proposal makes significant investments in priority infrastructure across the state — expanding broadband internet access, growing the state’s affordable housing, safeguarding natural resources, and creating a new Community Relief Fund to invest in underserved communities. More on that can be found here.

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