Legislature wraps up session adopting 2021-2023 budgets—How did cities fare?

As they reached the final days of session, legislators unveiled and adopted their final, agreed upon budgets for the 2021-2023 biennium that begins on July 1. Although the transportation sector has yet to recover from the economic impacts of the pandemic, the operating and capital budgets are based on a strong economic forecast that signals economic recovery. They incorporate federal relief from the American Rescue Plan Act and anticipated revenue from a new capital gains tax. Cities fared well in these budgets overall, with funding for important programs and even new money for costs related to police reforms.

Below are a few highlights. Make sure to also check out our updated budget matrix for a comparison of the current biennial budgets with the 2021-2023 funding for areas important to cities.

• Cannabis revenue sharing was increased by $10 million, bringing the amount cities and counties share up to $40 million and for the first time fully funding this revenue sharing provision adopted in 2015. Additionally, other state shared revenues were funded at expected levels.
• New city assistance funds of $20 million to be shared on a per capita basis were included to cover the costs of police reform legislation.
• 15 classes were included for the Basic Law Enforcement Academy in addition to more funding for the Criminal Justice Training Commission to implement police reform legislation.
• $83.5 million was included to fund the costs of the Blake decision and legislation making drug possession a misdemeanor. While there is no direct funding for cities in the budget, there is $4.5 million to the Administrative Office of the Courts for grants for municipal and district therapeutic courts.
• Significant funding for housing, including $1 billion in rental and utility assistance, a permanent revenue source for rental assistance, and $175 million for the Housing Trust Fund.
• Additional investments to address AWC’s housing stability priority include $187 million in foreclosure prevention assistance, $9 million to create an eviction resolution program, and $21 million for legal aid for indigent tenants.
• $129 million for the Public Works Trust Fund – the most money allocated to the program since the diversions began during the Great Recession.
• $400 million for broadband programs with much of the funding coming from federal monies.
• $1.1 billion for replacement of fish-blocking culverts using a watershed approach, and $26.8 million for the Fish Barrier Removal Board to continue to identify projects and related agency administration.
• $224.3 million for the Transportation Improvement Board and $36.7 million for Safe Routes to Schools grant programs.

The new biennial budgets include some of the most robust funding for cities that we have seen in a decade or more. We are very pleased that as the Legislature developed their budgets, they included city funding priorities and recognized cities as their partners. We still have work left to do, as they didn’t provide funding for new planning requirements included in HB 1220, nor is there funding for increased costs of handling drug possession cases at the local level. Those will be important conversations in which to engage throughout the interim.

For now, we celebrate the funding that is available to help our communities and we thank legislators for their commitment to supporting cities.