OLYMPIA—Leaders in the House and Senate today announced their final agreement on the state’s supplemental capital budget for 2024. The $1.3 billion budget funds construction projects and infrastructure across Washington and makes major investments in school construction, behavioral health facilities, and affordable housing construction.
Details of the budget are available on fiscal.wa.gov.
“I’m very proud of how we were able to come together and propose a budget that makes significant progress on so many of the important challenges facing Washington right now – schools, behavioral health, and housing,” said Sen. Mark Mullet (D-Issaquah), vice chair of the Senate Ways & Means Committee for the capital budget. “For me, the highlight is the school construction. While the state won the lawsuit with the Wahkiakum School District, that doesn’t diminish our responsibility to do more to help every kid in every school district have a safe, modern building where they can learn and succeed. I’m proud of what our budget does for students, teachers, and schools.”
House Capital Budget Chair Steve Tharinger (D-Port Townsend) said, “This budget works with local partners to build projects and create jobs in every corner of the state. It also puts serious funding toward solving two of our biggest challenges: affordable housing and the need for behavioral health facilities.”
School Construction
The budget makes historic investments in school construction, increasing state support in the School Construction Assistance Program from $271 to $375 per square foot – a total increase of $79 million in support for school construction. The budget also includes $68 million for skills centers and other career and technical education facilities, and $114 million for the Small District & Tribal Compact School Modernization program, which helps districts unable to pass their own school bonds for construction.
Behavioral Health
The budget provides a total of $82.7 million in behavioral health community capacity grants, to build behavioral health care facilities in communities across Washington. It expands investment in tribal behavioral health centers, innovative new projects being developed in partnership with tribes and the federal government to provide behavioral health and substance abuse treatment. The budget also funds a 54-bed Madrona Recovery Center to provide care to vulnerable children in Vancouver.
Affordable Housing
The budget includes $127.5 million for the Housing Trust Fund, building upon the record-breaking investments in affordable housing made in 2023. It also provides a total of $7.4 million for Plymouth Housing in the city of Redmond, an important project providing housing and services that was previously cancelled by the city of Kenmore.
The final budget agreement is expected to be passed by both chambers before the end of the 2024 session on Thursday, March 7.