The operating budget for the 2023–25 biennium is $147.4 billion over two years. This accounts for changes in the 2024 supplemental budget, and it includes all fund sources, including federal grants. This number includes:

• $140.9 billion in the operating budget
• $6.5 billion in the transportation operating budget

Approximately $71.9 billion of the state operating budget for 2023–25 is supported by tax and fee revenues and reserves that go into a collection of funds called Near General Funds Subject to the Outlook (NGF-O). Because the governor and Legislature have the greatest discretion over how these revenues are spent, programs supported by NGF-O receive the most attention during budget deliberations. This is the number most frequently quoted as the size of the state budget. General Fund-State (GF-S) is a subset of these funds. 

For details on various funds and budgets by agency, see fiscal.wa.gov.

For a more detailed explanation of the state's budget structure, see A Guide to the Washington State Budget Process [PDF].

Washington receives most of its revenue from taxes, licenses, permits and fees, and federal grants. Each individual revenue source is designated by law for deposit in specific accounts to support state expenditures. The largest source is the retail sales and use tax.

The state’s budget and accounting system includes more than 800 accounts, which operate much like individual bank accounts with specific sources of revenue. The largest single account is the General Fund-State (GF-S.) State collections of retail sales, business, property, and other taxes are deposited into the GF-S account. Expenditures from the GF-S can be made for any authorized state activity, subject to legislative appropriation limits.

Here are the sources of General Fund–State revenue that is forecast for the 2023–25 biennial budget:

Note: This table doesn't include other resources used to balance the budget, such as prior biennium balances or transfers from other funds.

For information on broader sources of state revenue, see A Guide to the Washington State Budget Process [PDF]

For the most recent data on revenue by account, see Fiscal.wa.gov - state revenue.

State spending reports are updated on a monthly basis on fiscal.wa.gov.

You can view payment data for the current and previous two biennia, going back 4-6 years.

We coordinate the submittal of agency budget requests and prepare the governor’s budget recommendation to the Legislature. Our budget staff work closely with state agencies to explain and justify planned expenditures. Analysts evaluate all budget requests for consistency with executive policy priorities and to ensure that proposed expenditures match fiscal constraints.

We're also responsible for maintaining the state’s central accounting system and developing population and demographic forecasts.

For more on OFM's role, as well as the role of the governor, the Legislature and state agencies, see A Guide to the Washington State Budget Process [PDF].

There are 76,617 state employees as of June 30, 2024. This does not include employees of higher education institutions. For distribution by agency, county, and trends over time, see our workforce data section.

You can search state employee salaries by name, position and agency at State Staffing Reports.

Salary data from a calendar year is usually updated by July of the following year.

Every two years OFM (on behalf of the governor) negotiates with unions to modify and reach new collective bargaining agreements. These agreements can include wages, hours, working conditions and methods for resolving disputes.

OFM bargains with over 30 different collective bargaining units. Higher education institutions may negotiate their own contracts, or may choose to have OFM conduct negotiations on its behalf.  Most community colleges elect to have OFM negotiate on their behalf.

We also bargain with some non-state employee groups, such as adult family home providers, child care providers, home care individual providers and language access providers.

For more information:

• State statutes covering collective bargaining
• Current collective bargaining agreements

Teleworking in some capacity has become a normal part of how we work as a state workforce. OFM State HR gives guidance to state agencies guidance on how to ensure workers are teleworking safely, communicating effectively, and productive. This guidance is available in the remote work resources section.

8,035,700 people resided in Washington as of April 1, 2024, according to our estimates. OFM develops official April 1 population estimates for the state, counties, and cities and towns each year.

Additional population information is available in the population & demographics section of this website.

We make an estimate of the number of people that live in each city and county in Washington as of April 1 of each year. We release those estimates at the end of June. To look up the most current population estimates for a city, see:

• April 1 population of cities, towns and counties 

These are the 10 largest cities in Washington by population:

For more cities, see:

• April 1 population of cities, towns and counties (Select "Population change and rank [Excel]")

$83,665 was the average wage for Washington workers in 2022, according to the most recent data we have from the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. See the trend in average wage for Washington compared with that of the U.S. overall on Washington and U.S. average wages.

Information about income for all states is available at the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis website.

$91,255 was the estimated median money income for Washington households in 2022. For past estimates and future projections by county, see median household income estimates.

Note that money income excludes employer-paid pensions and medical benefits.

There are two common indexes of inflation:

• Consumer Price Index (CPI)
• U.S. Implicit Price Deflator for Personal Consumption (IPD)

We don't list the values of these indexes here because they change often, and OFM doesn't publish them.

Values of these indexes in Washington are published by the Economic and Revenue Forecast Council in the quarterly economic and revenue forecast publication, which contains the following tables:

• Table A4.1 Selected Inflation Indicators (Price Deflator, U.S. CPI, Seattle CPI)
• Table A4.2 Chain-weighted price indices

See more information on inflation on our website.