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CURB board approves 2025 LEHI legislative report, highlights $75 million request
Summary
The Community Economic Revitalization Board approved its 2025 LEHI legislative report, which outlines CURB activity from 2019–Sept. 2024 and reiterates a $75 million biennial funding request to support project lending, rural broadband and economic development.
The Community Economic Revitalization Board voted to approve its 2025 LEHI legislative report and will submit the document to the Office of Financial Management and the legislature by Dec. 31. The board approved the report with minor scrivener edits and a request to better distinguish rural/frontier designations.
The report, presented by the board’s executive director Janae Stark, summarizes CURB activity from January 2019 through September 2024. Staff reported $144,700,000 invested in 157 core CURB projects—including 87 planning and 70 construction projects—and highlighted 24 rural broadband awards. Staff said completed projects show the program’s actual outcomes: $50,000,000 invested in 45 completed projects that generated an estimated 4,444 jobs and produced matching funds and private investment figures the report lists.
Janae noted that some figures (notably tax revenue) are self‑reported by businesses and should be treated as estimates. Board members requested language and mapping clarifications: one member suggested breaking out frontier‑1 and frontier‑2 communities under RCW designations to better tell CURB’s rural impact story. Staff agreed to incorporate those edits before final submission.
The board recorded a motion to approve the report with minor revisions; the motion was seconded and carried without opposition. The approval positions CURB to use the LEHI report as a communications and advocacy document during the upcoming legislative session, where staff intends to press for a $75 million appropriation to maintain and expand CURB’s core lending and rural broadband work.
The board plans outreach to new legislative members and budget writers in the coming weeks and flagged that state revenue forecasts and operating‑budget pressures could affect appropriation outcomes. The report will be filed by the Dec. 31 statutory submission date.
Next steps: staff will finalize minor edits to the LEHI report, prepare talking points and submit the report to OFM and the legislature by Dec. 31.
