WA lawmakers unveil capital budget ideas. Here’s some of the major project proposals
Senate and House lawmakers on Monday released their respective 2025-27 capital budget proposals, which feature funding for some big projects in Pierce, Thurston and Whatcom counties.
On the Senate-budget side, $770 million would go toward housing, including a record-setting $600 million for the affordable housing-focused Housing Trust Fund.
“I’ve supported anything related to housing,” said state Sen. Yasmin Trudeau, vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee for the capital budget. “A lot of that is based on my own lived experience. So, I know the need is acute.”
The capital budget, unlike its operating-budget counterpart, is mostly funded via bond sales rather than tax revenue. It appropriates dollars for enduring assets like critical infrastructure, parks, housing, behavioral-health facilities and schools.
As the Senate capital budget’s lead writer, Trudeau said she had the “healthiest of the three budgets.” Lawmakers have been working on hammering out proposals for the state’s transportation and operating budgets, too.
The upper chamber’s capital-budget plan also includes a proposal that would authorize up to $5 billion in bonds to cover the removal of culverts obstructing salmon migration.
Trudeau on Monday referenced the bipartisanship present in capital-budget discussions.
“I think putting me and (Republican state Sen.) Mark Schoesler in a room might politically make people wonder,” the Tacoma Democrat said. “I think we wrote a good budget, and we actually have a very healthy respect for each other after the end of this process.”
The House’s $7.63 billion bipartisan capital budget makes key community and infrastructure investments statewide. State Rep. Mike Steele, a Chelan Republican and ranking minority member on the House Capital Budget Committee, called it a “bright spot” in a March 31 news release.
“It supports our shared bipartisan priorities — housing, education, behavioral health, and essential infrastructure -- and does not rely heavily on general fund dollars,” he said. “I’m proud of the teamwork that went into this plan and confident in the positive impact it will have in communities across the state.”
Each budget proposal will receive a public hearing before heading for committee votes on April 3. The upper chamber’s version is slated for a full Senate vote on Saturday.
Next, House and Senate lawmakers will negotiate on a compromise that will need to clear both chambers ahead of April 27, the end of the legislative session.
Key projects in the 2025-27 House and Senate capital budget proposals include the following new appropriations:
Pierce County
$5 million for Maritime 253, the South Puget Sound Maritime Skills Center, in both the House and Senate budgets
$282 million for Western State Hospital’s new forensic hospital in both the House and Senate budgets
$7.76 million for infrastructure replacement at Tacoma Community College in the House budget
$5.05 million for the child care-focused Willard Early Learning Center in the Senate budget
$4,502,000 for the Orting School District Early Learning Center in the House budget; $4,592,000 for the same in the Senate
$5 million for Bridge Meadows via the Housing Trust Fund in the House budget; $5.05 million for the same in the Senate
Whatcom County
$10.5 million for Lummi Nation substance abuse treatment in Bellingham in the House budget
$9.07 million for access-control security upgrades at Western Washington University in the Senate and House budgets
Thurston County
Nearly $9.24 million to the Department of Enterprise Services for campus energy system replacement in both the House and Senate budgets
Nearly $22.11 million for Maple Lane’s rapid behavioral health bed capacity in the House budget
$49.5 million for legislative campus modernization would go toward the Pritchard and John L. O’Brien buildings in the Senate budget
$14.75 million for Deschutes Estuary restoration in the House budget
$4.14 million for remedial action at the Budd Inlet sediment site and $1.2 million for Capitol Lake rehabilitation and recovery in the Senate budget; $1.14 million for Budd Inlet sediment site in the House budget
In Benton County, the House budget would fund $3.8 million for the Three Rivers Recovery Housing; that number is $3.85 million in the Senate.
Franklin County, meanwhile, would benefit in both budgets from roughly $54.55 million for the Columbia Basin College’s Performing Arts Building replacement project.
This story was originally published April 1, 2025 at 2:52 PM.
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