From the Director: Senate Releases Budget

The Senate Ways and Means Committee held a public hearing on the bill later the same day. The committee addressed approximately 70 amendments during executive session on Thursday evening and advanced the bill a little before 8 pm. The full Senate is scheduled to review and pass the budget on Saturday, March 31.

Once approved by the Senate, budget writers from the Governor’s Office, House and Senate will meet to negotiate their differences on SHB 1128 – the operating budget bill. We understand these meeting will begin the middle of the week of April 1. A similar process is underway for both the transportation and capital budgets.

All three budgets, Governor, House and Senate, total different amounts but all are approximately $33 billion for the biennium. While all three budgets are different, those differences do not appear significant and many do not expect a large budget battle as we approach the end of the session. The same may be said for both the transportation and capital budgets.

All three operating budgets address city priorities: full SST mitigation, city and county assistance (ESSB 6050 in 2005 – MVET backfill), stormwater funding, and some limited infrastructure funding via expansion of the LIFT program. Both the Senate and House budgets allocate an additional $20 million for public health purposes. This is not the level we sought for the biennium but it is a start. Please see the Municipal Finance Section of this Bulletin and AWC’s website at www.awcnet.org for details.

A great deal can happen in the final three weeks but it appears we are headed to the conclusion of a successful city legislative session. We clearly need additional infrastructure assistance but a number of other priorities have been addressed, including SST.

Please stand ready, if an issue or budget item flips in the closing days we will put out a call for action and will need an immediate response. Thanks for your help to date - we have heard from legislators that they have heard from you and it does make a difference.

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