Week 8: Competing Budget Priorities
In the last couple weeks of session, the Legislature has plenty of work ahead of them to reconcile very different versions of both operating and capital budgets. They also have a dwindling number of bills to consider with the passing of another cutoff. All bills that managed to make it out of their chambers needed to make it out of their policy committee by February 25, unless they are necessary to implement the budget.
 Craig Nelson with Okanogan Conservation District presents to the Wildfire Caucus on the role that conservation districts play in wildfire preparedness and recovery.
Proposed budgets from the Senate and House
Last Sunday, the Senate and House released their proposals for the operating budget. These proposals are substantially different from each other, not to mention the Governor’s proposal from December. Here is what we see for the State Conservation Commission (SCC).
Governor’s Proposed Budget:
- A reduction of $676,000 to “Technical Services and Program Delivery,” which could be applied to different programs in that area of our budget.
Senate Proposed Budget:
- An increase of $1.25M to the Forest Health and Community Wildfire Resiliency program from the general fund for FY27 and ongoing per fiscal year in future biennia.
House Proposed Budget:
- A reduction of $1M to Riparian Grant Program outreach funding in FY27 and eliminating the operating funding for outreach in future biennia.
- A reduction of $750,000 to Sustainable Farms and Fields in FY27 and ongoing per fiscal year in future biennia.
SCC will continue to support our priorities and express our concerns about proposed reductions. The next step in this process, once these budget proposals are voted out of their respective chambers, is for a conference committee of budget leadership from both sides to negotiate a final budget for the Legislature to consider. This process will conclude by March 12, the final day of session.
After then, the Governor will have 20 days to approve the budget. He has the power to sign the budget as written, issue line-item vetoes, or veto the entire budget and bring the Legislature back to Olympia.
The capital budget proposals were also released earlier this week. There are no significant changes for SCC in either proposal, though the House does recommend shifting a couple of our programs from bond funding to the Natural Climate Solutions Account.
The Legislature’s Wildfire Caucus
The Legislature has an ongoing Wildfire Caucus with bipartisan participation, led by Representative Dent from the 13th district. This session, there have been regular check-ins on a variety of issues pertaining to wildfire, including resource needs, community wildfire solutions, the roles of various entities, and challenges with property insurance.
This week, the agenda featured a presentation on the role of conservation districts from Craig Nelson with Okanogan Conservation District. Craig did an excellent job speaking about district services from preparedness to recovery, bringing forward his own personal stories and broadening out to represent the work that takes place across the state.
We also learned about the proposed funding for the 1168 funding for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR), also known as the Wildfire Response, Forest Restoration, and Community Resilience account. Both the House and Senate have proposed full funding for this account. However, DNR is also seeing cuts to other programs that support forest health, so the gains may not translate to additional resources.
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