WA Legislature adjourns, passing $64B operating budget and $17B transportation package
As lawmakers quickly approached their deadline for the end of the session, a $64.1 billion operating budget was passed Thursday night with less than an hour before the midnight cutoff date to mark the end of the 2022 state Legislature.
The Washington state Senate quickly passed the legislation with a 29-19 vote after the House spent more than an hour debating the proposed budget. The measure was voted out of the House with a 57-41 vote.
The operating budget will fund several areas including homelessness, public education and will provide $2 billion towards the state’s largest ever transportation package, coming in at nearly $17 billion, which was also passed by state lawmakers on Thursday.
The governor met with reporters after adjournment and said legislators took “effective steps forward to address homelessness” with the new operating budget, as well as tackling climate issues this session. He praised the “cleanest, greenest” transportation package in the state’s history.
“This was a big night because there were big things done,” said Inslee.
He said he was particularly pleased with the urgency in legislation to bridge the gap between homelessness and housing security for those living without shelter.
Republicans argued during debates on the proposal that while inflation rates keep increasing and with additional forecasted revenue the proposed budget should have included more tax breaks for Washingtonians. They also said they felt left out of the budget-making process.
Democrats included a business and occupancy tax credit for businesses in the state making less than $125,000 a year but that won’t kick in until Jan. 2023.
The supplemental operating budget details were finalized Wednesday and will make adjustments to the two-year, $59 billion plan passed in 2021.
Gov. Jay Inslee is expected to sign off on the operating budget.
The transportation budget will include several road maintenance and preservation projects, four new ferries for Washingtonians, and free fares on public transportation for those under 18 years old.
Additionally, the transportation budget will go towards projects such as a $1 billion investment to repair Washington’s portion of the I-5 bridge between the state line with Oregon over the Columbia River, $2.4 billion will fund culvert removals, $150 million will fund and support a high-speed rail and $5.4 billion will be invested in projects to reduce carbon emissions and to expand multi-modal projects.
Writers of the original transportation package initially proposed an exported sales tax that would have added an estimated $2 billion to the funding of the package, but other states that would have been affected by the tax such as Oregon, Idaho and Alaska threatened legal action. Legislators instead will use $57 million in revenue yearly from the operating budget and $57 million a year from the Public Works Trust Fund over the course of the next 15 years to make up for the funding.
The new transportation budget has no new additional gas taxes.
Republicans such as House Minority Leader J.T. Wilcox from Yelm told reporters Thursday that the transportation budget should have included more funding for projects in the eastern part of the state instead of focusing so much on the Puget Sound Region.
During the late-night news conference, Democratic Senate Majority Leader Andy Billig praised lawmakers’ ability to finish the session on time for the fifth year in a row, which has not happened since 1899.
“We do have a lot of progress ahead of us, we’ve got a robust recovery and one of the things we said was our priority coming into this session was to make sure that that recovery worked for everyone,” said Billig.
He noted that investments into housing, climate action, healthcare and education will “help everybody.”
The legislature will return for a longer 105-day session in Jan. 2023.
This story was originally published March 11, 2022 at 9:36 AM.
