Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has proposed an extra-large capital budget for the 2021-23 biennium that would tap future bond capacity with an aim to jump-start the state’s ailing economy and expedite key infrastructure projects.
Highlights of the plan include investments across the state in areas ranging from housing to K-12 school seismic retrofits to wildfire prevention efforts.
Members of the public weighed in at hearings in House and Senate committees last week. Many lobbied for the Legislature to fund their project of interest as the governor has, some asked for funding where it hasn’t been allocated, and some testified against specific projects funded in the plan.
Lawmakers will create, debate, and pass their own spending plan into law by the time the 2021 legislative session is over.
What an XL capital budget looks like
“In essence, the governor’s proposing to start work sooner on numerous projects statewide at a time when interest rates are low and the economy can benefit from stimulus,” said Jen Masterson, Senior Budget Assistant for Capital Budget said at a hearing last week.
The state was forecast to have $3.3 billion in bond capacity for the 2021-23 biennium. Inslee’s plan pulls $1.25 billion more from future biennia, and his proposed revenue package adds another $218 million in bond capacity.
It means the state will have a slightly smaller capital budget in the future, if the budget were to be adopted.
The proposal authorizes nearly $6.2 billion in new projects, according to Masterson. That includes just under $4.7 billion in spending in bonds — a nearly 47 percent increase compared to the current biennium.
The governor’s office estimates the plan would support 36,000 jobs per year during the 2021-23 biennium.
“The intent of the capital budget this year is really going to be economic stimulus, job creation, and restarting the economy” in meaningful ways, said lead Republican capital budget writer in the House, Rep. Mike Steele of Chelan.
He said he thinks the amount of money spent will be subject to debate.
“The governor can use the capital budget — and I think did use the capital budget — to signal where his priorities were,” Steele said in a phone interview. “That’s great, but I think in pragmatic policy-making we’ll be more critical” about where the money will be useful.
The lead capital budget writer in the Senate, Sen. David Frockt of Seattle, said he thinks the governor’s “going bold” was the right move for the moment.
“I think the governor has made the right proposal to help us grow in the medium and long term out of the pandemic recession,” he said. The question may be to what extent and through what means capacity is expanded.
The capital budget is a bipartisan effort, they both confirmed. At least part of the reason for that: passing bonds requires a 60-percent majority vote in both chambers.
Thumbs up from housing and education
The plan includes funding for the Public Works Assistance program that provides loans local governments can use to repair infrastructure, build up broadband infrastructure, construct a new Nisqually State Park near Eatonville, and many more projects and programs.
Rep. Steele said there were more than 370 line items to go through — decisions to make, in other words. A map of projects included in the governor’s proposed 2021-23 capital budget that can be explored by county is available online at fiscal.wa.gov.
Even though it’s extra-large, the budget doesn’t come close to meeting the amount requested by state agencies.
In at least a couple areas, stakeholders seemed largely happy with the proposal. Many affordable housing advocates, for example, praised the governor’s investments in that arena at last week’s hearings.
The plan allocates $240 million to the state’s Housing Trust Fund, which funds affordable housing projects via loans and grants — a much bigger investment than the current biennium. The office predicts that would result in about 3,390 units.
Another $70 million goes toward helping entities acquire properties such as hotels to convert into shelters, permanent supportive housing, or transitional housing. About $50 million goes toward creating “enhanced shelters” as an alternative to congregate shelters.
It also includes funding to repair about 400 housing units in rural communities via low-interest home-repair loans for low-income households, and for the Healthy Housing Remediation Program, which cleans up hazardous sites and incentivizes development of affordable housing.
Many stakeholders in education also gave their stamp of approval to the plan.
Some of the biggest proposed investments in education include funding for new or renovated buildings at the University of Washington, Washington State University Vancouver, Eastern Washington University, Western Washington University, and Central Washington University. A building at Evergreen State College would get an HVAC upgrade under the plan.
“Under the governor’s budget, the state will jump-start work on a backlog of infrastructure needs on college and university campuses,” a budget highlights document reads.
More than $160 million is allotted for projects at each of the 34 community and technical colleges in the state, and several community and technical colleges would get new buildings, too.
In K-12, the proposal includes over $800 million for the School Construction Assistance Program, which would “construct and modernize” more than 80 school buildings, $72.6 million for a program that helps small districts and tribal compact schools with repairs and project planning, and $50 million for seismic retrofitting and safety improvements.
A few asks, objections
Several investments in behavioral health and other human services areas are in the plan, including:
- $191.2 million to construct a 150-bed behavioral health teaching hospital at the University of Washington;
- $119.7 million to construct a new 120-bed nursing facility at Fircrest School in Shoreline, which provides services for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and demolish failing buildings;
- $51 million to design a new 350-bed forensic hospital on the Western State Hospital campus; and
- $44.4 million to construct two civil behavioral health facilities — one 16-bed state-operated facility at Maple Lane in Centralia and a 48-bed mixed-use facility in Clark County.
Also included in the governor’s capital budget proposal is $90 million in grant funding for community behavioral health providers to expand community capacity.
“This will help divert and transition individuals with a complex array of behavioral health needs from the state hospitals,” a budget highlights document reads.
The plan for a new forensic hospital at Western State Hospital and construction of a nursing facility at Fircrest School were the targets of opposition at public hearings last week.
Darya Farivar with Disability Rights Washington testified against both projects.
“First, for the forensic hospital: That hospital is not for treatment, it is only for restoring defendants’ legal competency so they can be sent back to jail and be prosecuted,” she said. “Instead of expanding the criminal legal system, the state should invest in community-based treatment, diversion, and housing.”
Joshua Stuller, a former forensic patient at Eastern State Hospital, also testified against building the hospital.
“Statistically, this hospital does nothing to get us out of such crises, but rather puts us in a revolving door,” he said. “Instead of wasting over half a billion dollars on a painfully old-fashioned approach to behavioral health, let’s invest in something that will produce modern results.”
The Fircrest proposal comes from a 2019 report from the Ruckelhaus Center, which included recommendations to continue to invest in state-operated nursing facilities and rebuild Fircrest’s nursing facility as the buildings have reached the end of their useful lives.
The recommendation, Farivar said, was created without people with “direct, lived experience involved.” People who need the highest levels of support can be successfully served in the community, she said.
Ivanova Smith, chair of Self Advocates in Leadership, a coalition of people with developmental disabilities in Washington state, offered similar testimony.
“Fircrest has a long history of institutionalizing people with intellectual and developmental disabilities,” Smith said. “We deserve to … get nursing care in our communities, either through SOLAS [state-operated living alternatives] or through in-home care with our families.”
The Ruckelhaus workgroup included representatives from groups, such as The ARC of Washington state and Developmental Disabilities Council.
Matt Zuvich testified on behalf of the Washington Federation of State Employees, which also participated in the workgroup. He said at the House hearing that WFSE is one of a few participants that continue to fully support the group’s recommendations.
“If we don’t get this off the ground now, we’re going to risk failure” of the buildings at Fircrest, he said.
The governor proposed funding the design and construction of the nursing facility at Fircrest in the 2020 supplemental capital budget, spokesperson Mike Faulk wrote in an email.
“Ultimately, this proposal was not funded by the Legislature and, during the interim, the Governor’s Office convened a diverse group of stakeholders to discuss this issue and others from the 2019 Ruckelshaus report,” he wrote.
“Though the stakeholder group did not reach full consensus, there was broad agreement that something must be done about the Fircrest nursing buildings. That’s why the governor has again recommended” its design and construction.
Other requests came from the Washington Wildlife and Recreation Coalition, asking for more funding. And representatives with the YMCA expressed concern about funding for design and permitting to remove a fish barrier at Whitman Cove to comply with a federal court injunction.
Stakeholders said the lagoon is central to the experience at Camp Colman in Longbranch on the Key Peninsula.
“It’s a living classroom for our next generation of environmental stewards, and losing it would be devastating to Camp Colman’s environmental education program,” said Alyssa Moir, Camp Colman parent and board member. “Please do not fund a project that does not balance preserving marine education with salmon health. We can do both, and with the right project.”
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Sara Gentzler joined The Olympian in June 2019 as a county and courts reporter. She now covers Washington state government for The Olympian, The News Tribune, The Bellingham Herald, and Tri-City Herald. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Creighton University.
