Proposed budget spends more than half of climate funding on expanding government, not climate projects

The Democrats in the State House released their proposed budget and outlined how $306 million of the revenue from the state’s new CO2 tax will be used in the 2023-25 biennium. An examination of the budget line items shows that more than half of the expenditure goes to expanding government functions – planning, permitting, staffing, and the like. …

In total, about 56 percent of the $306 million budgeted in the House proposal goes to government. Some big expenditures stand out. The single biggest line item is nearly $41 million to the Department of Commerce for “local government climate planning,” to add climate change to local growth management plans. As we’ve written previously, adding a fifteenth non-prioritized goal growth management plans won’t reduce emissions but, as this budget expenditure demonstrates, will add a great deal of cost. …

The items listed in the proposed House Operating Budget aren’t the only expenditures from the new tax on CO2 emissions. Last year, the legislature used some of the revenue to adopt a transportation plan that was heavily focused on transit, biking, and reducing transportation-related CO2 emissions.