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WEA oversight board flags $400M supplanting to UW and urges lawmakers not to shift more higher‑ed funding into WEA
Summary
At its first 2026 meeting the WEA Oversight Board reviewed new revenue forecasts and a breakdown of WEA appropriations, highlighted a $400 million fund shift to the University of Washington and warned that continued supplanting could redirect as much as $800 million in the next biennium away from general‑fund higher‑education support.
At its first 2026 meeting the WEA Oversight Board said recent changes in the account’s revenue forecast and legislative budgeting practices have increased the risk that WEA funds are supplanting, not supplementing, higher‑education spending.
Joel, the board’s lead presenter, told members the increase in forecasted revenue for the 2027–29 biennium was driven almost entirely by legislation passed in 2025, not by economic growth. “The vast majority of the forecasted changes…particularly in that difference for June 2025 are due to legislation,” he said.
Board materials and discussion repeatedly cited a roughly $400,000,000 shift that the legislature made to the University of Washington. Joel said that shift represents an annual amount when annualized and that, if repeated, similar shifts could total…
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