How does Washington state’s short session budget work?
Published 1:30 am Wednesday, January 7, 2026
Budget talks dominated the 2025 legislative session. Now, amid another looming shortfall, tax debates and federal funding cuts, the same will likely be the case for the upcoming 60-day session starting Jan. 12.
Gov. Bob Ferguson capped off last year by introducing his proposed supplemental budget, but the process is far from over.
Here are some budget basics to know ahead of state lawmakers’ return to Olympia later this month.
In Washington, biennial budgets are adopted during 105-day legislative sessions in odd-numbered years, as noted on the Washington State Fiscal Information website. Updates are made to those budgets through supplemental budgets, which are typically produced every year and help fix certain shifts, such as changes in expected revenue or school enrollment.
To kick off budget proceedings, state agencies send in their requests for funding. After that, the governor considers those asks and comes up with his or her budget pitch.
The Office of Financial Management helps devise the governor’s budget vision, explained former OFM director Victor Moore in a recently published TVW video about the budgetary process. Under state law, by Dec. 20, that proposal must be sent to the state Legislature.
State lawmakers then consider the proposal before composing, debating and adopting their own budget ideas.
Both the House and Senate issue their respective budget proposals before later hammering out the differences.
Along the way, the budget is referred to committee, receives public hearings, gets voted out of committee and hits the floor of either chamber for consideration, Moore said. If the two chambers aren’t precisely aligned, then lawmakers enter into a budget conference to work through discrepancies before concurring on one bill.
Then it’s back to the governor, who can sign the budget into law, partially veto it or veto it.
Paul Queary, publisher of the Washington Observer, noted another option in the TVW video: The governor can also allow the budget to simply rest for a period of days without signing it, and it would still become law.
July 1 is the date that the just-passed enacted budget takes effect. How many kinds of Washington budgets are there?
There are three types of budgets in Washington state, although one gets the lion’s share of attention: the operating budget. That’s because this budget covers major areas such as public schools, human services, health care, government operations and public safety.
The transportation budget, meanwhile, is how the state builds and preserves roads, public transit, ferries, terminals and more. Money in the capital budget funds construction and the maintenance of state buildings, higher education campuses, public schools, parks and public lands, among other things. Washington state forecasts
To help envision how much money the state can expect to count on, certain forecasts are regularly released. Economic and revenue forecasts are provided each quarter by the state’s Economic and Revenue Forecast Council, offering a glimpse into anticipated tax revenue and economic activity for the state.
The state’s Caseload Forecast Council works to provide November, February and June forecasts related to entitlement programs, including caseloads in the school system, public assistance, correctional and juvenile institutions, medical assistance, and foster and long-term care.
Parliamentarian Mike Hoover said in a TVW budget-explainer video posted in March that looking at revenue and caseload forecasts together is how the state understands what its baseline budget will be.
Although congressional lawmakers in Washington, D.C. are allowed to run with a budget shortfall, state lawmakers in this Washington must balance their budget over four years to ensure its sustainability, Hoover said. If the economy hits choppy waters, then lawmakers must act to right the ship.
“You can either cut the needs or you can raise the revenue,” he said. “And those are tough choices the Legislature has to make.”
