What am I looking at and what can I do with this?

This is an interactive way to look at the state operating budget for the 2017–19 biennium. It enables you to quickly drill down into all areas of the budget to find every change since the previous budget. Descriptions of each item will be added as soon as they are provided the Legislature.

What’s included?

The default view shows Near General Fund-State (GFS) funds only, which is the main group of accounts that we budget from. You also have the option of displaying all funds, using the drop-down box at the top right. “All funds” includes more than 600 different fund sources, such as federal funds, transportation funds, private local funds, and dedicated accounts, where revenue is collected and spent for a specific purpose. Near GF-S is the most useful view of the budget because it’s what the Legislature and the governor have the most control over.

Budget by major government area

The bars at the top show the major government areas of the budget. Hover over the title of each area and click the “+” to expand them into sub-areas, for example, breaking education into higher education and public schools. Clicking on a major government area will filter the charts in the lower half of the page: “Carry-Forward Funding by Agency” and “Additional Funding”.

Carry-forward funding

On the lower left, the darker bars show the carry-forward funding by agency. That’s the projected spending level created by calculating the cost of decisions already made by the Legislature. You can click an agency to filter the additional funding shown on the lower right.

Additional funding

The lighter bars on the lower right show policy changes by default. You can change this to maintenance level changes from the dropdown menu. Maintenance level shows adjustments based on caseload or enrollment estimates and other mandatory expenses. Policy changes are new items not previously authorized, and are usually the main area of interest in a proposed budget. Mouse over each bar to see the amount of each of these budget items, and read a description of why it is in the budget.

Some budget items are comparably small, so you can zoom in by choosing in the drop down box to show only lower values. If an item shows “$0.0” that just means the value of the increase or decrease is less than $100,000.

Questions or feedback?

Contact Hayden Mackley, OFM communications manager, hayden.mackley@ofm.wa.gov, 360-902-0401.