WA House Passes State Budget, Hours Before Government Shutdown

Photo: Gov. Jay Inslee watches the state House vote on the budget bill around 4:30 p.m. Monday

OLYMPIA, WA - The state House passed the $43.7 billion 2017-19 state budget late Friday afternoon, just hours before the government was set to partially shut down at midnight. The state Senate passed the budget just before the House by a vote of 39-10. The House passed the budget bill just after 5 p.m. 70-23.

Gov. Jay Inslee signed the budget around 11:30 pm Friday.

The budget was largely hashed out this week by Republican and Democratic negotiators with the government shutdown looming at midnight Friday. The two sides reached an agreement "in principle" mid-week, but details of the budget didn't start trickling out until Thursday. The full budget wasn't released until Friday morning, leaving barely any time for review or debate.

The spending plan includes $7.3 billion for education, with almost $2 billion in new education funds. That money is to address a 2012 state Supreme Court ruling ordering the state to fairly fund education. The measure will raise property taxes across the state, but local school funding levies will be capped - and lowered in many areas - in 2019.

But homeowners in many high-priced areas, King County especially, will see a big hike in property taxes, according to estimates. The median-priced single-family home in Issaquah, for example, would see an increase of $560 in 2018, and $800 in 2019.

Most state residents will see an increase in 2018, however, as local rates aren't set to come down until the following year.

Other key parts of spending in the budget include:

• $102 million for the state mental health system, with $60 million for upgrades at psychiatric hospitals
• $618 million for state employee wage increases
• $8.9 million for homelessness services
• $6 million to create a new department, the Department of Children, Youth, and Families
• A rollback of the tax exemption for bottled water
• A new online sales tax on purchases made from out-of-state retailers

We will update this story as more details come in.

Image via Gov. Jay Inslee