Board says coordinated outreach, including a new legislative caucus, helped protect WEA funds this session

The WEA board on Zoom said coordinated outreach with legislators — including a new higher-education legislative caucus — helped stop proposals to supplant additional WEA funds during the 2026 legislative session.

Joel (staff member) told the board that “no additional funding was supplanted with WEA” after early proposals from the governor and the Senate would have shifted tens or hundreds of millions, and he cited the final budget’s use of one-time swaps and bond proceeds to backfill institution accounts. "Originally, the governor's office had proposed an additional $50,000,000," Joel said, and the Senate proposal had included about $160,000,000; the board also recalled that roughly $400,000,000 was moved in the prior session.

The board described the legislature’s reallocation of roughly $240,000,000 from institution capital or building accounts as a one-time maneuver. Joel said the capital-to-operating swap was replaced with new general-obligation bonds and cautioned it is “not something that will be replicated in the future.”

Board members singled out legislator engagement and the caucus as crucial. Charles Knudson, representing Amazon, praised legislators and specifically thanked Senator Tawanna Nobles for leadership during the session. Bill Line, who helped recruit legislators, described a concerted outreach effort: "We met with about 15 of them…we got yeses from everybody," he said, and he credited Representative Dave Paul and Senator Nobles for organizing the caucus and getting legislators into weekly discussions with budget writers.

The board also reviewed enacted bills and provisos that affect higher education. Joel summarized several measures, including a bill he referenced as House Bill 2089 that the board projects will add about $1,000,000 to WEA in the current biennium and $4–5 million in 2027–29, and Senate Bill 5840, which will require the Student Achievement Council to share FAFSA/WASFA completion status with schools’ High School and Beyond Plans. He also described a bill referenced in the transcript as "Senate Bill 5000 thousand 963," intended to guarantee the maximum Washington College Grant to certain Passport to Careers students; Joel said that bill did not pass the House. The board noted Senate Bill 6260 reduced running-start caps and made other K–12-related adjustments conditional on tax enactment.

On appropriations, Joel said the supplemental budget included just under $120 million in new WEA appropriations, with the largest maintenance item being a Washington College Grant caseload adjustment. He reported WCG participation now exceeds 120,000 students and is expected to exceed 130,000 in the next 1–2 years. Policy-level investments were limited but included $15 million for UW’s Center for Behavioral Health and Learning and just over $2 million to correct collective-bargaining funding omissions.

The board flagged new budget provisos: instructions for the Employment Security Department to conduct a higher-education workforce landscape analysis, a short-turnaround SBCTC task force to recommend potential efficiencies by December 1, and a proviso directing the board to work with high-tech trade associations (the board later learned Life Science Washington had been involved and scheduled a follow-up meeting).

Board leaders said the session outcome — halting additional supplanting and avoiding deeper cuts — represented a defensive win after a difficult budget outlook. Joel and multiple members thanked the caucus organizers and legislative allies and said the group intends to keep building the caucus ahead of future sessions.

The board concluded the item by inviting further staff follow-up on detailed appropriation changes and scheduled next steps for implementing the new provisos.