OLYMPIA – Legislators in Olympia passed the biennial 2025-27 budget this session with a focus on education, housing, and supporting critical services like healthcare.
“Every year we come to Olympia to make Washington better for the people who live here, and this year was no different,” said Rep. Monica Stonier (D-Vancouver). “Despite facing significant budget challenges, I’m proud of the work we did to balance our budget and continue supporting students, families, and individuals across our state so that our communities can thrive.” Rep. Stonier publicly discussed the challenge of making the necessary cuts while also focusing investments on people, food and health access, housing, and special education.
The state has three budgets: operating, which pays for day-to-day costs; transportation; and capital, which funds construction projects.
Here are top-level highlights of the $7.5 billion, two-year capital budget, which passed with overwhelming bipartisan support:
Affordable Housing
The new two-year budget invests a historic total of $782 million in housing and homelessness programs. This includes a record-setting $605 million for the Housing Trust Fund, directly funding the construction of affordable housing. I was proud to champion $50M to specifically focus on expanding housing for families with individuals who have developmental disabilities. Most of these families are on fixed incomes with very limited resources.
K-12 and Early Learning
There is nearly $1 billion for K-12 school construction and early learning facilities. That total includes $202 million for small district and tribal compact schools, $151 million for school seismic safety, and $100 million for early learning facilities. The legislature also increased funding for special education and the Local Efforts Assistance fund totaling $200M. It also increases funds for materials, supplies and operating costs ($215 million), and maintains funding for school meals and summer EBT for kids ($45 million).
Behavioral Health
The budget includes $130 million in grants for projects expanding behavioral health care capacity in community settings, increased funding for 988 & Crisis Facility Grants for three centers, and funds the completion of the new forensic hospital facility at Western State Hospital.
For more details about the capital budget—or the state operating budget and transportation budget–visit fiscal.wa.gov.
There’s more than $26 million in projects right here in the 49th district:
- $18.28M for renovations and updates to the Washington Center for Deaf & Hard of Hearing Youth
- $2.46M for modernization and improvements to the State School for the Blind
- $1.36M for Cascadia Tech Academy building repairs and updates
- $1.2M for the Vancouver Family Resource Center
- $1.18M for the Housing Solutions Center acquisition and renovation
- $1M for Clark County Public Safety
- $1M for the Community Roots Mill Plain Housing Project that will create 20 units of permanent housing for individuals exiting homelessness, providing residents with access to mental health services and support.
- $400K for YWCA Clark County, Housing & Empowerment Campus – provides funding for the planning, engineering, and preparation for the construction of 54-unit income-restricted housing project.
The new transportation budget includes $15.6 billion in projects and improvements to the state’s network of highways, ferries, trains, buses, and other alternatives, including funding for the I-5 bridge between Oregon and Washington.
“Investing in transportation comes with a responsibility to the people who live in our state to provide safe, sustainable, reliable ways to travel locally and regionally,” said Rep. Stonier. “We move a lot of people and a lot of goods around Washington every day, and this budget invests in the maintenance and preservation of existing systems and provides crucial funding for long-term projects that will keep folks moving in the future.”
49th District transportation investments:
- $4.75M for C-TRAN Highway 99 Bus Rapid Transit
- $580.18M I-5 Columbia River Bridge
Regional transportation investments:
- $28.9M for C-Tran infrastructure upgrades and fleet modernization
- $250K for SR 14/I-205 to SE 164th Ave improvements
More information on the state transportation budget can be found here.
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