Associated Press and Herald staff
OLYMPIA — A $63.8 billion supplemental state budget that spends on statewide programs ranging from homelessness and behavioral health and the ongoing COVID-19 response was signed Thursday by Gov. Jay Inslee.
The supplemental budget builds on the $59 billion, two-year spending plan adopted by the Legislature last year, and it benefited from a significant influx of tax revenue the state has seen over the past year. Additionally, lawmakers allocated more than $1 billion in unspent pandemic-related federal relief funds in the budget.
For Snohomish County, the supplemental budget contains $341,000 for the state’s share of the cost to add two Snohomish County Superior Court judges. There also are grants totaling $5.6 million to Snohomish County to assist refugees from Afghanistan.
While the supplemental budget has no general tax increases, it also has no across-the-board tax cuts, something Republicans had argued for throughout the legislative session that ended March 10.
A business tax credit was included that would affect about 125,000 small businesses in the state, and it was among bills signed by Inslee Thursday.
Starting in January, businesses making less than $125,000 a year would pay no state business taxes, and for those making up to $250,000 a year, business taxes will be cut in half.
The supplemental operating budget also spends state or federal money on things like adding more nurses and counselors for students, increasing rates to vendors providing services to people with developmental disabilities or long-term care needs and shoring up the state’s paid family leave program, which officials warned was nearing a deficit.
It also allots funding for raises for state workers. According to the Office of Financial Management, about 63,800 general government employees will get a 3.25% general wage increase, about 6,700 state corrections workers will get a 4% wage boost and about 1,200 Washington State Patrol officers will get a 10% pay hike. The last general wage increase for represented employees was July 1, 2020.
The operating budget also transfers more than $2 billion to the nearly $17 billion, 16-year transportation revenue package that Inslee signed last week. The budget leaves about $3 billion in total reserves.
Inslee implemented several full or partial vetoes of bills, including a section of a bill that would have expanded the state’s existing warehouse sales and use tax to include smaller warehouses of at least 100,000 square feet. In his veto notice, Inslee said that while he understood the importance of manufacturing and warehousing to rural economies, the tax incentives in the bill were overly broad.
Inslee on Thursday also signed a $1.5 billion state construction budget that spends on areas ranging from housing, homelessness, behavioral health facilities and seismic upgrades at public schools.
That will steer $12 million to Lynnwood for construction of the proposed Community Recovery Center next to the city’s new Community Justice Center. Also included are $300,000 for a Snohomish teen center, $206,000 for the Edmonds Boys & Girls Club and $1.7 million for the Darrington Wood Innovation Center.
Herald writer Jerry Cornfield contributed.
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