With state legislators still at an impasse over Washington’s budget, we’re unveiling a new interactive research tool(opens in new tab) that allows citizens, journalists, and students to easily examine how public dollars are being spent, and assess the impact of this year’s budget proposals on public schools and universities, hospitals, prisons, courts, health care, and other critical state services.
Visit the State of Working Washington(opens in new tab) to compare expenditures on budget items as broad as Public Education or as specific as the Department of Fish and Wildlife. For example: since 2009, state parks have lost 83% of their funding. Higher education now accounts for just 8.38% of the state budget – a loss of more than $650 million since 2002:
All charts and tables display both “real” (inflation-adjusted) budget numbers calculated by the Economic Opportunity Institute, alongside “nominal” (unadjusted) numbers provided by the Washington State Office of Fiscal Management.
More screenshots and examples from http://stateofworkingwa.org/budget(opens in new tab):
