The 2024 legislative session officially ended Thursday, March 7, 2024. As with all short sessions, it was fast and furious, and had its ups and downs, but in the end the County Road Administration Board landed in a relatively good place.
As a reminder, we had two decision packages this session as a result of the Legislature choosing to use Rural Arterial Program dollars to fund our legacy software and federal fund facilitator pilot program requests in their 2023 budget. This year, we asked that new dollars be used; the Legislature agreed and will fund both with our preferred methodology. A huge than you to the Legislature for remedying these!
With this final funding hurdle cleared, we will be officially opening the federal fund position later in the spring.
If you know someone who would be a good fit, please share the posting with them. Be on the lookout for information and funding resources from this pilot program for your county later this year!
Additionally, we had asked for a return of $4.4 million to the Rural Arterial Program after the Legislature chose to claw those dollars back in 2023.
We knew it was a long shot to ask for this money, and, unfortunately, in the end the Legislature chose not to return these dollars. The Legislature’s rationale for this is the uncharacteristically high fund balance the Rural Arterial Trust Account is experiencing at this moment in time.
We are disappointed in this result, but we are committed to working internally to ensure counties continue to receive the critical funding they need for preservation and maintenance work. If you have any questions about open RAP projects in your county, please do not hesitate to reach out to Drew, Steve or myself.
As we look to the interim we will continue to participate in ongoing workgroups related to route jurisdictions, local governments performing work for WSDOT, and a new workgroup that will look at project delivery methods. It’s never a dull moment at CRAB.
Please reach out with questions, concerns, and feedback. We appreciate your continued support!
