Lines have been drawn in Olympia regarding funding for additional housing, with a focus on affordable housing.
And while debates will ensue about the details of the state’s capital budget, the quick assessment is that a happy middle can be found between Gov. Jay Inslee’s pie-in-the-sky request and the Legislature’s initial proposal.
Let’s start with the basics: There is a housing shortage in Washington, which has contributed to increasing homelessness throughout the state.
Meeting with The Columbian’s Editorial Board in December, Inslee echoed the thoughts of many residents: “It is my belief that it is distressing to everyone to see this degradation that is going on in every urban area in the state, people living in squalor. That’s not acceptable in the state of Washington.”
While critics are prone to blaming the unhoused for their predicament, a lack of available options is the primary driver behind the crisis. We can urge homeless people to get a job or demand that cities clean up homeless camps, but that does not mean that housing will magically appear.
With that in mind, Inslee made housing a focus of the proposed budget he released prior to this year’s legislative session. The annual release of the governor’s budget – be it by Inslee or his predecessors – is typically ignored by lawmakers who develop the actual plan for state spending. But Inslee raised some eyebrows by requesting that Washington exceed the state debt limit and put $4 billion toward building housing over the next six years.
Exceeding the debt limit would require approval from the Legislature and from voters, which essentially renders the request dead on arrival. Asked how he would sell the proposal to the people of Washington, Inslee said: “I’m not selling it. It’s what the voters want to purchase. This is a reality-based budget. It would be nice if we could sprinkle pixie dust and solve these problems.”
There is a reason the ever-optimistic Inslee is sometimes referred to as “Sunny Jay.”
In response, lawmakers this week rained on the proposal. Senate leaders proposed a $7.9 billion capital budget that would allocate $625 million toward affordable housing, developments near transit and landlord mitigation assistance over the next two years. The capital budget is for construction and is separate from the larger biennial operating budget, which also will be formulated this year.
“Our goal was to make a major investment in affordable housing with this capital budget . . . I’m confident we’re going to be making a record-setting investment in our Housing Trust Fund this year,” said Sen. Mark Mullet, D-Issaquah and vice chair of the Senate Ways and Means Committee.
But that proposed investment makes no mention of Inslee’s idea to ask voters about exceeding the state debt limit. In truth, that makes the plan more reality-based than the governor’s budget. Excess borrowing would increase the state’s debt burden, creating problems in the future. Unlike the federal government, the Legislature must pass a balanced budget.
“I think the general thought process was, if we’re already having a hard time staying underneath that threshold, don’t put more money on the credit card,” Mullet said of increasing the state’s debt.
One month remains in the legislative session, meaning that much negotiating will take place. Legislators are wise to ignore plans for exceeding the debt limit, but they should increase their investment in housing construction. A happy medium can be found between the two.
