OLYMPIA — Washington lawmakers proposed a roughly $69 billion spending plan Saturday, which over the next two years would fan out across the state to pay teacher salaries, give school meals to more students and fund emergency housing and rental assistance.
The budget doesn't contain any new tax proposals, but state spending is still poised to grow significantly from the previous two-year budget. The overall budget would add about $4.7 billion in new spending and leaves about $3 billion in reserves.
The proposal that came out Saturday is a compromise between lawmakers in the state House and Senate, both led by Democrats. Each chamber separately proposed budgets in March, setting the stage to negotiate an agreement.
The $69.3 billion figure doesn't include money raised by new auctions of greenhouse gas emissions credits.
Lawmakers announced they plan to spend about $400 million from those credits through the operating budget, including on programs to develop clean energy projects and to help low-income people with utility bills.
On education, lawmakers have agreed to $2.9 billion in new spending for K-12 schools. Within that, special education would get an additional $417 million.
On Saturday, the House voted to pass House Bill 1436, which would raise the state's per-district and per-student allocation of funds to special education. But there will still be a cap on the state's share of payments to support special education students.
Lawmakers have proposed a significant infusion of money into housing, an area of focus during this year's legislative session. One highlight is $150 million for a new program to help people or descendants of people blocked from living in certain neighborhoods due to racist housing covenants with down payment and closing costs.
And the capital budget — released separately on Friday, spanning building and construction projects in the state — proposes what lawmakers say is an unprecedented $400 million for the state's Housing Trust Fund, which finances affordable housing through grants and loans.
Absent from the budget was Gov. Jay Inslee's proposal to borrow $4 billion to accelerate housing construction in the state, a move that would require voter approval. But the governor praised lawmakers' housing spending nonetheless.
"This was a year that we needed to go big on housing, and that's exactly what legislators did," Inslee said in a statement. "... This funding will allow us to tackle the housing crisis facing every part of our state and address the homelessness crisis at a larger scale, similar to what I proposed in December."
Also absent: a proposal to raise the tax rate on the sale of multimillion-dollar properties.
There was no broad-based tax relief in the budget, although lawmakers have passed a tax break for newspaper publishers and voted to allow people married but filing taxes separately to claim the Working Families Tax Credit, and to apply for the credit for up to three years if they were eligible but didn't claim it.
On March 24, the Supreme Court gave the green light to the state's new tax on capital gains, which is expected to bring in about $1 billion in the upcoming two-year budget.
Lawmakers are also proposing to spend hundreds of millions to boost reimbursement rates for providers of medical and mental health care. And the operating budget includes $142 million to expand substance use disorder treatment.
"People want strong schools, safe communities, affordable housing, climate action and an innovative economy," said Sen. Christine Rolfes, D-Bainbridge Island, chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee. "This is a responsible spending plan that will improve lives and move our state forward."
Rep. Drew Stokesbary, R-Auburn, the leading Republican on the House Appropriations Committee, said he thought the budget compromise was "a little bit better than the House version" proposed in March.
But, he said, he regretted Republicans weren't able to participate in a meaningful way, and he was disappointed the reserves are "not as high as they should be given the economic uncertainties ahead."
Lawmakers are expected to vote on the budget Sunday, the final day of the legislative session.
