WA To Use Rainy Day Fund To Fight Corona Virus

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee declared a state of emergency on February 29th in all of Washington’s counties. Senator Steve O’Ban is sponsoring the bill.

The Pierce County Republican says the money would come from the state’s emergency ‘rainy day fund’.

Yesterday during State Department of Health testimony in a Senate committee, the amount of funding was determined at 100 million dollars.

O’Ban’s bill authorizes the $100-million transfer to the disaster response account, solely for response and recovery efforts related to the declared emergency. The amount of the transfer was determined based on testimony by the Department of Health in yesterday’s Senate Ways & Means Committee hearing. The Office of Financial Management may use these funds for costs incurred by state agencies and local governments in the course of their coronavirus response. The money may not be used to supplant existing federal, state or local funds. Agencies must show that they have used the maximum amount available in federal funds before seeking funding from this appropriation.