Your Washington Public Ports Association has been deeply immersed in reading and understanding the House and Senate Democratic Budget proposals that came out earlier this week. These budgets reflect a mixed bag for ports, with overall more wins than losses. Many of our top priorities have received full funding, but the transportation budget continues to be a significant concern. For a detailed, port-specific analysis, please read on.

2021-23 Capital Budget

Capital Budgets 

MTCA Budget – WPPA’s top budget priority, Remedial Action Grants, are fully funded in both the Senate and House Committee Capital Budget proposals.  This is a huge win for the port community and a direct result of the work members did with legislators this session.   

Boating Facilities Program Budget – Both the Senate and House proposals provide $14.9 million for grants to acquire, develop and renovate boating facilities, including boat launches and ramps, transient moorage and upland boating support facilities.  The program administered by the Recreation and Conservation Office is supported by the state gasoline tax revenue attributable to recreational boating. 

Derelict Vessel Removal Program Budget – The Derelict Vessel program receives $4.5 million in the House budget and $3 million in the Senate budget.  These funds are used to remove high-priority derelict vessels and vessels of concern in marine and fresh waters.  

Aquatic Lands Enhancement – Both Senate and House budgets fall short of expectations.  The Governor’s budget offered $9.1 million, but the House provides only $6.8 million and the Senate $7.8 for projects located on or adjacent to state-owned aquatic lands throughout Washington. The program supports projects that:  1) re-establish natural, self-sustaining ecological functions of the waterfront; 2) provide or restore public access to the water; and 3) increase public awareness of aquatic lands. 

Community Aviation Revitalization Loan Program – Both the House and Senate would extend the 2018 Community Aviation Revitalization Loan Program and the board that reviews applications and selects projects.  While the Senate proposes $5 million for the program during the 2021-2023 biennium, the House is seeking just $2.5 million. 

Community Economic Revitalization Board Infrastructure Development – The Senate is seeking $25 million for CERB, while the House provides $40 million.  CERB finances publicly owned economic development infrastructure improvements via low-cost infrastructure financing. 

Broadband Infrastructure 

Both the Senate and the House provide over $400 million for broadband infrastructure to be administered among the Office of Broadband, the Public Works Board, and CERB.  The use of federal funds and differing funding structures complicates an analysis.  WPPA will sort through the competing proposals and provide an update to ensure our members fully understand the options that are on the table. 

2021-23 Transportation Budget

Transportation budgets for the 2021-23 biennium were released this past week. Despite an infusion of $1B from of American Rescue Plan Act federal stimulus, the budget continues to see cuts and deferrals to projects and programs important to ports. The federal dollars help to keep existing projects like the Gateway Program on schedule (for now) and also creates capacity to invest $726M into state fish passage barrier projects. Those are the highlights. No significant new money is allocated to maintenance and preservation of the system. Furthermore, the budget revenue forecast suggests we will continue to see revenue shortfalls related to the changes in travel patterns resulting from the COVID pandemic, well into the future. All of this requires ports to remain vigilant and defend projects and programs that remain important.

Connecting Washington – One bright spot in both House & Senate budget proposals is that, for the most part, they sustain full funding and keep projects funded in Connecting Washington on schedule for this biennium. There are many important projects to port districts on this list including: SR-501, SR-529 – Marine View Drive, US-12 Phase 7 and inaugural projects associated with the Gateway Program. The revenue forecast shows transportation revenue will grow more slowly and not achieve parity with pre-pandemic levels of funding until very late in the decade. Absent new revenue sources, Connecting Washington projects will continue to face delays into the future.

Freight Mobility Strategic Investment Board (FMSIB) – The Senate Transportation Budget provides full funding and allows FMSIB to resume soliciting a call for projects. The House Transportation Budget continues to prohibit the board from performing a project call and removes $7.5 million in funding that would go towards awarding projects funding. If this funding cut were to be retained in the approved budget, the overall reduction in funding for FMSIB over the past four years is just under $40 million.

Federal Freight Formula Funding – The Fixing America’s Surface Transportation (FAST) Act provided a carve out of formula funding that was dedicated for freight projects, including up to ten percent for multimodal projects including port districts. FAST’s extension by Congress resulted in an additional $23.4M of funding to be programmed. The Senate’s budget allocates $14.4 million of the funding be swapped for existing state preservation while $9 million be allocated for freight projects located on the city street and county road network.  The House budget has a similar breakdown for state versus local funding but also restricts local funding be used for preservation and maintenance. Neither budget followed federal law allowing up to ten percent be used for multimodal projects.

Fish Passage Barrier Removal – Both budgets provide WSDOT with the full funding they requested for the 2021-23 biennium.  $726 million comes from a combination of state and federal ARPA stimulus to address culverts on the state system. The state needs $3.1 billion over the next eight years to fully address the federal court injunction.

Road Usage Charge- Funding is provided for continued work to resolve hurdles in implementing a Road Usage Charge. This phase of the work plan will looks at ways to simplify revenue collections and ways to create more equity in the policy of user paid fees.

Studies

·      Truck Parking Action Plan: The House budget funded a truck parking action plan.

·      Shortline Rail Inventory & Needs Assessment: The House budget provides funding for an update to the Shortline Rail Inventory & Needs Assessment

·      Broadband Installation along WSDOT ROW: A study analyzing implementation strategies needed to allow broadband to be installed along highway rights-of-way.