House approves capital construction budget

April 12, 2017

With little debate, the House of Representatives passed a two-year capital construction budget Wednesday on a near unanimous vote. John Sattgast reports from Olympia.

SATTGAST: The House proposal totals $4.1 billion dollars, and includes money for college buildings, mental health facilities, parks and recreation, salmon recovery, low-income housing and other projects. The lead Republican on the Capital Budget Committee is Chehalis Representative Richard DeBolt. DeBolt said he’s proud the proposal puts the greatest emphasis toward building schools.

DeBOLT: “Probably the most important part of this budget is it’s the largest education budget we’ve seen in a long time. Not always do we put education first, but in this budget, we truly did. It’s over half our budget is going to education. That’s a great number!”

SATTGAST: The plan also includes $802 million for higher education facilities and $226 million for the Public Works Assistance Account, which makes loans to local governments for water and sewer infrastructure.

The measure passed 96 to 2. It now heads to the Senate for further consideration.

John Sattgast, Olympia