County lobbyists brief Snohomish County Council on 2026 state budget, housing and behavioral-health outcomes

Snohomish County Council heard a state legislative update during its March 2026 general session from Anna Kavan, the county's senior government-affairs analyst, and the county's state lobbyists, who summarized key budget and policy outcomes from the just-concluded legislative session.

Josh Weese, one of the county's lobbyists, said the legislature adopted three budgets totaling about $79,400,000,000 and added roughly $1,600,000,000 to the spending plan. He told the council the supplemental budget included about $200,000,000 for housing and homelessness, $41,000,000 for flood preparedness and response, and shifts in Climate Commitment Act dollars into operating budgets that reduced new capital spending overall. Weese said Snohomish County’s $2,000,000 request for PFAS cleanup at the former Paine Field fire-training site did not make the final budget and will need a different approach in the next session.

“Much of the Climate Commitment Act dollars were shifted over to the operating budget,” Weese said, and he flagged an uptick in transportation bonding but noted the final transportation budget did not preserve the level of bonding originally proposed; as a result, the county’s $25,000,000 request for the Snohomish River Trail was not funded in the final package.

Anna Kavan introduced the county lobbyists and said interim planning with departments will begin this spring to prepare follow-up requests and department recommendations for the council over the summer.

On revenue flexibility, Weese summarized components of house bill 2442 (as referenced in the briefing) that the county supported. He said the bill includes local options such as allowing REET 2 revenues to abate nuisance properties, a sales-tax option for services for children and families, use of rental‑car sales taxes for criminal-justice purposes, a narrow property-tax levy for public-health clinics, and the ability to create stand-alone levies for veterans assistance and mental-health/developmental-disability assistance.

Erin Jagiek, the county’s behavioral-health lobbyist, highlighted passage of bill 6,027 (referenced in the briefing) that the presenters said will provide flexibility for Continuum of Care (CoC) grant funds. Jagiek said the bill clarifies that some capital funds may be used to rehabilitate or adapt existing structures and that limited rental-assistance uses were included. She also noted the supplemental budget set aside $15,000,000 in contingency funding for CoC grants statewide to buffer possible federal changes to CoC grant requirements.

Jagiek emphasized that, overall, core behavioral-health funding and Medicaid behavioral-health rates avoided major reductions, though she noted specific program reductions: an approximate 20% reduction in the LEAD (law enforcement assisted diversion) program and a roughly 10% cut to outreach and case management for the Recovery Navigator program. She also said the legislature asked the Health Care Authority to prepare a statewide implementation roadmap and funding plan for crisis-relief centers and crisis stabilization units.

Council members thanked the presenters and had no additional questions at the time. Kavan told the council to expect department-level interim planning meetings and future follow-up reports.

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT: County staff said departments will begin interim planning this spring and return recommendations to the council over the summer; specific follow-up on the Paine Field PFAS request and the Snohomish River Trail bonding request were flagged as items for future action.