Washington state agencies save extra $100 million
Washington agencies wrestling with budget reductions have managed to save an additional $100 million a year beyond the cuts mandated by the Legislature.
The surplus cash has provided a boost to the state as revenues have been slow to recover from the recession. Agencies are typically supposed to get back some of the savings as an incentive to control spending, but lawmakers have been seizing the extra dollars to put into the general fund.
Those so-called reversions accounted for 15 percent of the $480 million budget adjustments that lawmakers made during the special session.