PORT ANGELES — The capital budgets proposed by the state House and Senate both have funding placeholders for a variety of projects on the North Olympic Peninsula.
The Senate capital budget proposal, totaling $7.3 billion, was unanimously approved April 5 and is now in the House for consideration.
SB 5195 has some line items dedicated to projects across the Peninsula. It reserves $5.75 million for the Clallam Joint Public Safety facility project and $1.57 million for the Jefferson County early learning and family support center.
It also sets aside some money for projects in Port Angeles, such as the Port Angeles Waterfront Center ($4 million), the city multifamily housing pipeline ($2.05 million), the YMCA early learning center ($2.5 million), the Marine Discovery Center ($1.03 million), civic field ($600,000) and the library accessible pathways project ($313,000).
A $28 million line item is dedicated to the Jamestown S’Klallam Behavioral Health Center.
Sequim has two line items for city park acquisition, adding up to a total of $546,000.
In Jefferson County, $1.33 million is dedicated to the Port of Port Townsend travel lift electrification, $750,000 for Olympic Discovery Trail land purchase and $160,000 for the Port Townsend Public Library HVAC and elevator modernization.
The capital companion bill, HB 1216, is still in committee and includes a few more line items dedicated to projects across the Peninsula.
The capital budgets are different than the state’s operating budgets. Operating budgets fund daily functions while the capital budgets focus on long-term projects and investments.
Both the House and Senate have passed their operating budgets. However, Gov. Bob Ferguson has detailed nine pages of concerns over the spending plans the Legislature crafted and has stated they rely too heavily on taxes – particularly a proposed wealth tax.
The budget approved by the House on April 1 on a 54-44 vote laid out a two-year, $77.8 billion operating budget. The Senate’s budget, passed March 29, details $78.5 billion in spending over the next two years.
Across the proposed budgets that are floating around the state Legislature, Clallam County Commissioner Mark Ozias said on Monday that counties are “not looking at a lot of new revenue sources.”
While the Washington State Association of Counties (WSAC) was looking into dedicating a greater share of cannabis revenue for counties, creating the ability for counties to impose a utility tax and implementing a progressive Real Estate Excise Tax, Ozias, who sits on the WSAC Legislative Steering Committee, said none of those are likely to happen.
The proposal to raise the cap on property taxes in Washington state from 1 percent to 3 percent is still alive, however.
“We’re just going to have to wait to see where the chambers come to in terms of property taxes,” Ozias said. “We should have some clarity relatively soon.”
In terms of other legislation, conversations around HB 1813 are still alive. That bill would require a realignment of behavioral health crisis services for Medicaid enrollees during the Health Care Authority’s re-procurement of medical services.
However, Ozias said it has been “sufficiently watered down by insurance lobbying.” That led to a discussion in WSAC regarding whether the organization should continue to advocate for the legislation in its current form.
Instead of focusing on legislation, Ozias said WSAC might start working directly with the governor’s office. Because kick-starting a re-procurement process does not require legislation, he said Ferguson might be willing to start the process himself.
“We have a new governor with new priorities who appears to be much more focused on state agencies and how they are working,” Ozias said. “As a longtime consumer advocate who wants to see more efficiency in local government and always fought for consumer rights, you would think that a procurement process would be not too much of an ask.”
Ozias typically provides a legislative update to commissioners every other work session.
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Reporter Emma Maple can be reached by email at emma.maple@peninsuladailynews.com.
