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Puget Sound Partnership briefs council on budget pressures and legislative priorities as members debate land-use, floodplain and housing tradeoffs
Summary
Don from the partnership outlined a constrained 2026 legislative environment with a ~ $2 billion revenue shortfall and priorities to protect capital grant programs, accelerate permitting for restoration, and address toxic stormwater/6PPD. Council discussion focused on linking salmon recovery with housing and regional planning, and on convening forums to reconcile land-use pressures with floodplain protections.
Don, a partnership legislative lead, gave a session briefing that framed the 2026 Washington short-session as dominated by budgetary constraints and elections. He told the council the legislature faces roughly a $2 billion revenue shortfall from previous forecasts and that supplemental budgets will prioritize emergent needs and capital projects that can be timed with bond and CCA resources.
"The legislature has about $2,000,000,000 less in revenue for the current biennium and next biennium than they thought they did when they left Olympia last session," Don told members, and he flagged that the Climate Commitment Act (CCA) auction price increases have raised CCA revenues but also intensified competition for those funds.
Don reviewed Puget Sound Partnership priorities for 2026: fully fund capital grant programs that support Puget Sound and salmon recovery (PSAR, SURFboard), restore priority funding cut in prior budgets, advance permit-streamlining for habitat restoration that reduces flood risk, advance toxic stormwater solutions including 6PPD alternatives, and resist changes that weaken protections for ecologically important lands.
Council members then held a sustained discussion about how to reconcile salmon recovery objectives (especially restoring floodplains) with regional housing and transportation needs. Several elected local officials and commissioners said the political and informational pressure in favor of housing is intense and urged the council to engage planning and regional governance forums. Members proposed concrete next steps: coordinate with the Puget Sound Regional Council (PSRC), convene joint forums and case studies that include local elected officials, planners and housing advocates, and time workplan items to produce actionable policy recommendations in 2027.
Wendy and Melissa laid out proposed SRC commitments to support those efforts: join ECB land-use subcommittee sessions by agenda, convene a case-study forum to surface implementable local policy changes that discourage harmful land conversion, and host targeted forums on transportation and housing to explore multi-benefit solutions.
Members volunteered to help shape forums and to take responsibility for outreach to county and city leaders, with the goal of producing recommendations and legislative asks in future windows.
