On December 14, Governor Inslee released his proposed supplemental budget to the adopted FY 2017-2019 budget. It starts the conversation about changes to the already-adopted budget. His proposal adds $1.5 billion in new spending with $950 million to fully implement the Supreme Court’s view of how the implement their McCleary decision. The proposal uses revenue from the “Rainy Day Fund,” which are then replaced with revenue from a new proposed carbon tax.
State-shared revenues: The proposal leaves intact the adopted funding levels for revenues shared with cities, including liquor profits and taxes. Additional marijuana revenues for disbursement to certain cities and counties tied to the February 2018 forecast are not yet included in this proposal. Streamlined Sales Tax mitigation is increased to $20.6 million over the biennium.
Public Works Trust Fund: There is $97 million for the same project list that is held up in the capital budget that was not passed last session.
Homelessness: Juvenile Rehabilitation is proposed to receive an additional $1.2 million to provide safe and stable placements for youth transitioning from incarceration to a community setting. The Department of Commerce is slated to receive $10 million from the Housing Trust Fund and $113.2 million in bond capacity for affordable housing, cleaning up brownfields sites for affordable housing, and preservation of affordable housing stock.
Opioid treatment and prevention: The proposal adds $19.9 million to combat the opioid crisis. The proposal includes increasing the Medicaid rate for Medication Assisted Treatment to match the Medicare rate, $1.7 million for youth drug prevention, $793,000 for prescription monitoring, and $2.3 million for four new hub and spoke networks to provide capacity in rural areas.
Pensions: PERS/TRS 1 COLA includes a one-time, 3 percent COLA on up to $25,000 of annual benefit for retired PERS 1 members. There is a $750 annual benefit increase cap. This would increase the PERS 1 supplemental contribution rate for PERS and PSERS employers by 0.14 percent.
Basic Law Enforcement Academy: One additional class would be added in 2019.
More details about the Governor’s budget proposals are available on AWC’s budget summary chart and through the Office of Financial Management’s budget page.