Housing, fighting fentanyl priorities in Inslee’s proposed budget

OLYMPIA — Gov. Jay Inslee proposed a budget Wednesday that could raise pay for paraeducators by $3 an hour, put more state troopers on Washington roads and provide a $200 credit to low- and moderate-income Washington families to compensate for high energy costs.

Inslee is seeking about $2.5 billion more in overall state spending than what lawmakers allocated in April for the two-year period ending in mid-2025. He said Wednesday he wants much of that new spending to go toward behavioral health care, housing, education and fighting the fentanyl crisis.

“This is a budget that’s changing lives,” Inslee told reporters Wednesday. “There are some numbers attached to it, but the numbers aren’t important. What’s important are the lives. And there’s a lot of lives that are going to be improved because of the proposals that we are making.”

Altogether, Inslee is proposing a $70.9 billion operating budget, not including about $330 million in climate dollars raised from the state’s new carbon auctions. Washington also has capital construction and transportation budgets, which, along with the operating budget, make up the state’s total spending.

Lawmakers agreed on state spending through mid-2025 when they passed a budget in April, but they’ll make adjustments when they meet beginning Jan. 8 for a 60-day session.

The state is collecting higher revenues in general, but money is flowing strong from two new sources in particular: the tax on capital gains and the state’s carbon emissions auctions, both of which have brought in more money than expected. This year, the carbon auctions have raised $1.8 billion, while the capital gains tax has brought in about $890 million.

Inslee has proposed an increase of $464 million on spending for behavioral health, including 110 new treatment beds at state facilities. He also wants to spend $140 million more on housing, $100 million of which would pay for about 1,350 new housing units for people living on state rights of way.

The governor has proposed an additional $64 million to battle the fentanyl crisis, including more money for a range of programs to serve people with substance use disorder. Those programs include expanding health care and treatment options, providing naloxone to first responders and educating people about the risks of fentanyl.

“One pill can now take your life,” Inslee said. “Fentanyl is the nuclear weapon of drugs, and we’ve got to up our game against this scourge.”

The governor also wants to increase funding for special education. In addition to the proposed wage increase for paraeducators, also known as teachers’ aides, he wants to increase the money Washington school districts get for special education.

Inslee has proposed putting additional money toward constructing K-12 schools using new revenues from the capital gains tax.

The $70.9 billion figure does not include spending with money raised by the state’s new carbon auctions.

Inslee has proposed spending $900 million of that among the three areas of the budget.

However, lawmakers hold the purse strings and don’t have to take up Inslee on his proposal, but the budget shows what the governor wants to prioritize as he eyes his exit. Inslee was first sworn in as governor in 2013, and he is not running for reelection in 2024.

Sen. June Robinson, D-Everett, chair of the Senate Budget Committee, said in 2023 that lawmakers made “historic investments” in education, housing, behavioral health and mitigating climate change.

“I’m looking forward to the 2024 legislative session to continue the work of making strategic investments based on what the governor has presented here today in the areas that are most critical and staying on the course that we as Democrats have set over the past few years,” Robinson said.

Sen. Lynda Wilson, R-Vancouver, the ranking Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, said the home energy credit was a “tacit acknowledgment of the burden the governor’s misguided and misleading policies have placed on the people of Washington.”

“Yet this proposal provides only one-time relief and for only a small segment of the population,” Wilson said.

Wilson also criticized the general trend of spending during Inslee’s term.

“During the decade he has been in office, Washington has seen declines in affordability, public safety and education,” Wilson said. “These results come either in spite of the rapid growth in state spending — or because of it.”