Capital budget includes funds for area projects

OLYMPIA — The Senate’s 2024 supplemental budget includes funding for 9th Legislative District priorities.

“The budget approved today has funding for projects related to K-12 and higher education, public safety, housing, water infrastructure, behavioral health and more,” Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, said. “It puts priorities over ‘pork’ and takes a statewide approach, as it well should.”

Schoesler is the Republican leader on the Senate capital budget; his district includes Cheney, Medical Lake and nearby communities in Adams, Lincoln, Whitman and other counties.

“Last summer, we had tragic fires in Spokane County and parts of Pend Oreille (County). When it was my district, this Legislature rallied around Malden and Pine City,” Schoesler said during his floor speech supporting the capital budget, noting that the Senate spending plan provides money for wildfire cleanup and other problems caused by the fires.

This year’s Senate capital budget also does more to support school construction than any he’s seen in his 32 years as a state legislator, he said.

“School construction is one thing that the state is supposed to be a partner in,” Schoesler said. “In Spokane County, five school bonds failed, which is unusual. They didn’t fail because these people don’t like their schools.

“They failed because their property taxes are too high.”

He cited the following examples of funding support for K-12 in the budget:

• $121.5 million in total funding for construction, maintenance and improvement in districts across the state, especially small and tribal school districts.

• Creating a new fund to support skills-center facilities for career and technical education, with $60 million for this year and the opportunity to create continued and sustainable funding for them going forward.

• A $144 million enhancement to the School Construction Assistance Program, including increasing the state cost allocation match from $272 per square-foot to $400, a bipartisan proposal that would change the formula so that the state will pay the full sales-and-use tax levied on all costs chargeable to a school-construction project.

• $35 million for the school modernization loan program under Schoesler-sponsored Senate Bill 5344.

• $7.5 million in early-learning facility grants.

The Senate capital budget also addresses wildfire-recovery and water needs, providing:

• $3.5 million in toxic clean-up funding for homes affected by the Gray and Oregon Road wildfires that hit Spokane County in 2023.

• $975,000 for Spokane Conservation District to address wildfire recovery.

• $5.5 million for the Odessa Ground Water Replacement Program’s EL 22.1 project.

Several 9th Legislative District school districts also will receive funding through the small district and tribal compact schools modernization program. Funding in the budget includes $5.245 million for a school repair project in the Asotin-Anatone School District. Other school districts receiving funding include Creston, Freeman, LaCrosse, Palouse, Pomeroy, Steptoe and Wilbur.

In Pullman, Washington State University’s main campus will receive $10 million for its campus energy program and another $10 million for a new digester at the Knott Dairy Center, maker of Cougar Gold cheese.

In addition, Eastern Washington University in Cheney will receive nearly $10 million for energy improvements to its sports and recreation center.

Other 9th District projects funded in the budget include:

• Tristate Health Hospital in Clarkston — $1 million.

• Tekoa Parks and Recreation — $200,000

• Davenport Senior Center capital improvements — $120,000

Once the House passes its budget plan, Schoesler hopes to meet with other capital budget writers to reach agreement and approve a final capital budget before the legislative session ends March 7.

 

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