E-Newsletter: Budget Summary and Investments in Our District

Given the magnitude of work before the legislature this session, our budget and policy decisions were focused on four main priorities: COVID-19 response, economic recovery, racial justice, and climate change. These principles guided our decisions and helped us address urgent needs, providing support for small businesses and struggling renters, tax relief for working families, bold investments in behavioral health care, and much more. 

There is more work to be done, but I am proud of what we have accomplished in the past four months. In case you missed my previous e-newsletter where I shared the Top Ten Highlights from a Landmark Legislative Session, you can read it here. Below you’ll find a summary of each of the three budgets we passed as well as a list of projects that were funded in our district.

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Operating Budget 

Washington communities are hurting. But we have all stuck out this pandemic together, and now it is time to recover together. This year we passed a $59 billion biennial budget that is all about recovery. This “Washington Recovery Budget” continues to build on our Community and Economic Recovery Plan, using state and federal funds from the American Rescue Plan to support people hit hardest during the pandemic. Many families have suffered from reduced work or lost jobs or had their financial security disappear entirely. For those living in poverty and struggling to make ends meet before the pandemic, life was hard enough. I am proud to have supported a budget that offers  support to those families and businesses who need help the most, with rental relief, food assistance, and more. Those investments include:

• $658 million for rental assistance to continue the goal of paying the back rent accrued during the Governor’s eviction moratorium. This is in addition to the $325 million allocated in the Step One for Community and Economic Recovery bill (HB 1368) passed by the Legislature in February
• $187 million in mortgage assistance through the ARPA Homeowner Assistance Fund to help prevent foreclosures and delinquencies
• $124 million in food assistance programs so that families will not go hungry
• $292 million for homelessness response and permanent housing supports
• $79 million to increase TANF grants by 15% and extend the time limit for benefits
• A $26.5 million increase to the Housing and Essential Needs Program. We know there are about 1700 people who are homeless, with disabilities, who are eligible for this program but there haven’t been enough funds to serve them, so this funding will get those 1700 people into the program
• $29 million increase for the Emergency Cash Assistance program for families who need one-time funds to maintain safe housing and utilities or have an unexpected emergency

These funds will go to helping those most in need in our community, keeping families in their homes, with food on their plates, without fear of power being shut off while ensuring that landlords have the rent they are owed. The Department of Commerce website has more information on these programs and how to apply.

Getting through the pandemic together begins with investing in one another. This budget will help every community in Washington recover more quickly. As we all see hope on the horizon, we must continue to support each other so that we can recover together.

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Capital Budget

This year’s Capital Budget makes critical investments in our local infrastructure and community — by responding to the pandemic and helping to build a better Eastside for all of us. 

This budget invests a record $6.3 billion in construction projects with a massive $411 million push for broadband access throughout the state along with funding for housing, education, and environmental projects. Significant investments include: 

Early learning, education and higher education ($1.55 billion)

• $48 million for early learning and childcare investments (COVID related)
• $970 million for public school construction
• $314 million for public universities (not including UW teaching hospital)
• $233 million for community and technical colleges

Behavioral health ($428 million)

• $201 million for a new, 150-bed teaching hospital at UW
• $95 million for competitive grants to community behavioral health providers
• $51 million to design a new 350-bed forensic hospital at Western State

Affordable Housing

• Affordable housing and emergency shelters ($350 million)
• $175 million for the Housing Trust Fund
• $120 million for the acquisition of property and buildings that can be rapidly converted to housing 
• $42 million for utility and infrastructure costs related to affordable housing
• $10 million for the preservation of existing affordable housing

Other Significant Investments:

• $411 million for broadband infrastructure
• $81 million for projects that develop and utilize clean energy
• $690 million in natural resource investments including drinking water, forest management, toxic cleanup, recreation and conservation, and state parks 

Detailed budget documents about the construction budget can be found here.

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Capital Budget Projects Funded in the 48th Legislative District

• International Community Health Services: $106,000
• Bellevue Boys and Girls Club: $156,000
• New Ground Kirkland: $258,000
• Redmond Senior and Community Center: $1.25 million
• The Landing [the only emergency young adult shelter program on the Eastside]: $258,000
• The Together Center: $1 million
• David E Brink Park Shoreline Renovation: $500,000
• Marymoor Park Dock Replacement: $500,000
• Lake Sammamish Property Acquisition: $1.8 million

I was the prime sponsor advocating for funding the new Redmond Senior and Community Center. Redmond’s previous senior center was closed in 2019. This new space will serve seniors and our entire community through arts and cultural events, and services that connect our neighbors to what they need – from healthcare and counseling services to food and shelter, to simply getting help with a driver’s license or navigating the transit system.

My seatmate, Representative Slatter, submitted the request for the Together Center’s new expanded campus, which includes healthcare, housing, and human services providers. Together Center is a critical partner in supporting our Eastside community through coordination and development of affordable housing for low-income people and permanent supportive housing with onsite services for unsheltered neighbors.

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Support for Small Businesses

I know this year has been hard. One group that I am especially concerned about is our small business community. To keep us all safe, most businesses faced temporary closure. Some couldn’t survive, and others are struggling to stay afloat. Many are family-owned, local institutions, and Main Street businesses that need our help. This session, I supported bills and budgets that offer incredible support to those families and businesses who need help the most, through:

• $500 million for unemployment insurance tax rate cuts to lessen that burden on small businesses in the state budget and over $1.7 billion in tax rate cuts to businesses in our state through SB 5061. Still, more needs to be done to truly make businesses whole for rate increases due to factors beyond their control.
• $50 million in small business grants for art and heritage businesses and non-profits, and small businesses in counties that moved back to Phase 2. This is in addition to the $240 million in small business grants that I voted for earlier in the session in our Step One for Community and Economic Recovery bill (HB 1367)
• Exempting businesses from paying state taxes on COVID-19 relief funds (HB 1095) and requiring county treasurers to grant a deferral of 2021 property tax payments for businesses with significant revenue loss (HB 1332)
• Expanding the Main Street Program, which helps revitalize rural towns and support local small businesses (HB 1279)

I hope this relief helps our local businesses who have made incredible creative adjustments to survive.

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Transportation Budget

This is a pivotal time for our state’s transportation system. Our booming economy has brought more than a million people here for jobs – and they are all using our highways, buses, trains, and ferries. We are responding with new ideas to transform our transportation system into one that is innovative and sustainable while offering people more choices. We are facing unprecedented growth on the Eastside, and we need more than maintenance. We need capacity.

The new $11.8 billion transportation budget will continue to fund major work that was under threat last year because of financial pressures from the COVID pandemic and an initiative that caused Governor Inslee to put construction projects on hold. It includes new initiatives to create a more diverse transportation workforce along with funding for a more sustainable transportation system with electrification, charging stations and hybrid ferries.

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Transportation Projects Funded in the 48th Legislative District

• Provide funding for the preservation activities identified in the SR 520 Lake Washington Bridge Replacement and HOV plan.
• SR 520/124^th Street Interchange: funding provided to complete preliminary engineering and right-of-way for a design-build project.
• Pedestrian improvement projects on SR 520 corridor in Redmond. Reconfiguring eastbound ramps at 40^th and 51^st and pedestrian safety improvements on 3 interchange ramps. Construct a grade-separated pedestrian and bike tunnel for the SR 520 Regional Shared Use Path.
• 1-405/NE 85^th Street Interchange toll infrastructure

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Thank you for taking the time to read my newsletter. Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns. My legislative assistant, Michelle Hansmann, and I are here to serve you. Although the legislature has adjourned, I serve as your legislator year-round.  

I am beginning to plan the projects and policy ideas I’ll be working on this interim and would love to hear what is important to you. Please let me know if you have any suggestions or requests for bills that you’d like me to sponsor next session. If you would like to connect over the interim, please email amy.walen@leg.wa.gov or call 425. 883. 3366. You are also welcome to follow my Facebook page for frequent updates.  

Yours in Service,  

 

Representative Amy Walen